Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Transgene (Nasdaq: TRGNY; Nouveau Marche: TRANSGENE), announced today that it has been issued European patent No. 742 834 and US patent No. 6,110,735 covering a method for the preparation of recombinant viral vectors by intermolecular homologous recombination. The technology enables the highly efficient and fast generation of new vectors, in particular adenoviral vectors, and has very broad potential applications.
Recombinant adenovirus vectors are a useful system for mammalian gene transfer, widely used in gene therapy, but also to study gene expression in vitro and in vivo. The potential applications for these vectors range from the study of gene functions to the production of high levels of recombinant proteins, recombinant vaccines and gene therapy. Generation of the recombinant adenoviral vectors is classically performed in eukaryotic cells, such as mammalian cells. However, these systems although they initially made vector generation possible, are strongly limited by their low efficiency.
The main feature of the method described in the patents consists of separately constructing the viral vector in bacterial systems and then producing the vector in the appropriate human complementation cell lines. Assembly of the complete viral genome occurs very rapidly in the prokaryotic host, thus allowing the entire process of virus generation and isolation to be completed within one month instead of several months by traditional methods.
Besides enabling Transgene to rapidly generate adenoviral vectors for its gene therapy programs, the technology has also already shown its usefulness in the field of functional genomics, for example in high throughput screening of gene functions.
``These new patents, combined with other intellectual properties covering both advanced defective adenoviral vectors and complementation cell lines, are yet again strengthening our leading position in the field of adenoviral vector technology,'' said Bernard Gilly, Chief Executive Officer. ``We will make the technology available for licenses to interested parties.''
Transgene, based in Strasbourg, France, with an office near Boston, Massachusetts, is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of gene delivery technologies and gene therapy products for the treatment of acquired or inherited diseases for which there is no cure or adequate therapy at present. The Company's proprietary technology platform consists of multiple vector families with a special emphasis on vaccinia virus, adenovirus, and synthetic vectors. Transgene has five products in clinical development to treat a variety of cancer indications, including two in phase II clinical trials and three in phase I clinical trials.
Forward-looking statements included in this press release including without limitation those relating to Transgene's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements. Factors that may affect future operations and business prospects include, but are not limited to, actual clinical and scientific results and developments concerning corporate collaborations and Transgene' s proprietary rights and other important factors described in Exhibit 99.1 to Transgene's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 1999 filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
For additional information on Transgene, visit Transgene's web site at transgene.fr |
