NORTHWEST BIO Announces Positive Third Quarter Progress

BETHESDA, Md., Oct. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwest Biotherapeutics (OTC.BB: NWBO) (NORTHWEST BIO) today announced that it has exceeded its Q3 projection of 15 clinical trial sites by the end of the quarter, with 17 sites at major medical institutions across the U.S. now open and active where patients can enroll in the Company's ongoing clinical trial of DCVax® immune therapy for Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most lethal form of brain cancer.  The Company likewise exceeded its Q2 projections, as previously announced.

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The Company said it is continuing to add clinical trial sites in the U.S. and Europe.  The Company expects to have 25 sites open and active by the end of the next quarter (Q4), with further growth expected into 2012.  Open and active trial sites are listed on the U.S. Government's website, www.clinicaltrials.gov, and on NORTHWEST BIO's website www.nwbio.com  

The Company's clinical trial site expansion reflects growing interest from both physicians and patients, and a growing awareness of the positive data from the Company's prior clinical trials for GBM brain cancer.  In those trials, patients who received DCVax® showed a median survival of 3 years compared with median survival of 14.6 months for patients who receive standard of care (surgery, radiation and chemotherapy).  Patients who received DCVax® also experienced a substantially longer time to tumor recurrence: a median of 2 years, compared with 6.9 months in patients who received standard of care.  DCVax® was well-tolerated, with no toxic side effects.

NORTHWEST BIO's current clinical trial for GBM brain cancer also offers a key difference from other immune therapy trials currently under way.  The NORTHWEST BIO trial is a double-blind randomized controlled trial, with a "treated" group and a "control" group, as is required for late stage clinical trials.  However, unlike other current immune therapy trials for cancer, the NORTHWEST BIO trial has been carefully designed so that it provides an opportunity for all patients in the "control group" to "cross over" and receive the DCVax® immune therapy after a certain point is passed.  As a result, the NORTHWEST BIO trial design will not only provide randomized, placebo-controlled data,  it will also allow all patients in the trial to ultimately receive the DCVax® treatment -- including the patients who are assigned to the "control group."  Physicians and patients are expressing strong interest and support for this trial design.

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