SYNSORB Biotech Inc. today announced that their affiliate company, Oncolytics Biotech Inc.(TSE:ONC.) signed a worldwide licensing deal with US-based Pfizer, Inc. for the development and marketing of Oncolytics' reovirus for animal use. SYNSORB owns 6,750,000 common shares of Oncolytics, representing 39% of the outstanding shares.
"This is a tremendous milestone for SYNSORB's affiliate company, Oncolytics," said Dr. David Cox, President and CEO of SYNSORB. "When SYNSORB initially purchased Oncolytics in 1999, we knew this technology had tremendous potential for the treatment of cancer, and in hindsight, made a very sound business decision to spin off Oncolytics into its own entity. We are very pleased to report that SYNSORB still maintains substantial ownership of this flourishing biotechnology company."
The reovirus is a naturally occurring virus that has shown effectiveness in a number of animal model studies including canine. Pfizer will be responsible for development and commercialization of the product. ONC will provide continuing support to Pfizer for the development of the product. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The reovirus infects and kills cancer cells with an activated Ras pathway. Ras is an important component of a pathway controlling normal growth and differentiation of a cell and when activated, may account for a large proportion of all human and animal tumours. Researchers believe that targeting this pathway could have broad potential in the treatment of many cancers. Oncolytics' researchers demonstrated that the reovirus was selectively able to kill cancer cells with this particular activation and successfully demonstrated that the virus could kill human cancer cells in vitro derived from breast, prostate, pancreatic, and brain tumours, as well as being able to treat tumours successfully in a number of animal models. Oncolytics, separate from this agreement with Pfizer, initiated a Phase I human clinical trial in June, 2000. |
