ZIOPHARM Announces Four Presentations at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting

BOSTON, Nov. 03, 2016 -- ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZIOP), a biopharmaceutical company focused on new cancer immunotherapies, today announced that four abstracts highlighting data from the Company’s adoptive cell-based therapeutic programs have been accepted for presentation at the 58^th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition. The meeting will be held December 3-6, 2016 in San Diego.

The research, conducted at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Intrexon Corporation (NYSE:XON) demonstrates, among other results, that T cells can be quickly produced with the Sleeping Beauty system and that this non-viral approach to gene therapy can be harnessed to generate chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T-cell receptor (TCR) expressing effector cells.

"This suite of nonclinical data underscores the technology underlying our adoptive cell-based programs, including the potential for the Sleeping Beauty platform to improve the manufacture of genetically modified T cells and our ability to redirect T-cell specificity to blood cancers and solid tumors using CARs and TCRs," said Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ZIOPHARM. "This research advances our plans to rapidly and cost-effectively deliver engineered T cells, and we look forward to seeing it translate into clinical programs."

Details for ASH presentations are as follows:

Title:   Very Rapid Production of CAR⁺T Cells upon Non-viral Gene Transfer using the Sleeping Beauty System
Session Title: 614. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Therapy, excluding Transplantation
Date and Time: Sunday, December 4, 2016, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. PT
Publication ID: 2807
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Hall GH

Title: Personalization of T-cell Therapy using a High-throughput Platform to Identify Tumor-specific T-cell Receptors
Session Title: 703. Adoptive Immunotherapy: Poster II
Date and Time: Sunday, December 4, 2016, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. PT
Publication ID: 3359
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Hall GH

Title: Combination Immunotherapy with NY-ESO-1 Specific CAR⁺T Cells with T-Cell Vaccine Improves Anti-Myeloma Effect
Session Title: 703. Adoptive Immunotherapy: Poster II
Date and Time: Sunday, December 4, 2016, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. PT
Publication ID: 3366
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Hall GH

Title: Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Modified T Cells for the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Expressing CD33
Session Title: 616. Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Novel Therapy, excluding Transplantation: Poster III
Date and Time: Monday, December 5, 2016, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. PT
Publication ID: 4058
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Hall GH

About ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc.:

ZIOPHARM Oncology is a Boston, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company employing novel gene expression, control and cell technologies to deliver safe, effective and scalable cell- and viral-based therapies for the treatment of cancer and graft-versus-host-disease. The Company's immuno-oncology programs, in collaboration with Intrexon Corporation (NYSE:XON) and the MD Anderson Cancer Center, include chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) and other adoptive cell-based approaches that use non-viral gene transfer methods for broad scalability. The Company is advancing programs in multiple stages of development together with Intrexon Corporation's RheoSwitch Therapeutic System® technology, a switch to turn on and off, and precisely modulate, gene expression in order to improve therapeutic index. The Company's pipeline includes a number of cell-based therapeutics in both clinical and preclinical testing which are focused on hematologic and solid tumor malignancies.

Forward-Looking Safe-Harbor Statement:

This press release contains certain forward-looking information about ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. that is intended to be covered by the safe harbor for "forward-looking statements" provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, and in some cases can be identified by terms such as "may," "will," "could," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," and "believes." These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations regarding its securities offerings, fundraising activities and financial strategy, the progress, timing and results of preclinical and clinical trials involving the Company's drug candidates, and the progress of the Company's research and development programs. All of such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of the Company, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: our ability to finance our operations and business initiatives and obtain funding for such activities, whether chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) approaches, Ad-RTS-hIL-12, TCR and NK cell-based therapies, or any of our other therapeutic candidates will advance further in the pre-clinical or clinical trials process and whether and when, if at all, they will receive final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or equivalent foreign regulatory agencies and for which indications; whether chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) approaches, Ad-RTS-hIL-12, TCR and NK cell-based therapies, and our other therapeutic products will be successfully marketed if approved; the strength and enforceability of our intellectual property rights; competition from other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; and the other risk factors contained in our periodic and interim SEC reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, and our Quarterly Report for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to revise and disseminate forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, or to reflect the occurrence of or non-occurrence of any events.

Trademarks

RheoSwitch Therapeutic System^® (RTS^®) technology is a registered trademark of Intrexon Corporation.

Contact:
Lori Ann Occhiogrosso
ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc.
617-259-1987
[email protected]

David Pitts
Argot Partners
212-600-1902
[email protected]