>>RICHMOND, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONXX - news) today announced that the European Patent Office has granted the company European Patent No. 931830B1, which covers replicating viral-based therapy for treating cancer. The patent specifically covers the use of modified adenoviruses to treat cancer patients having tumors which lack functional retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein.
``We have filed patent applications throughout the world on this technology, and we were earlier granted a U.S. patent. The addition of these patents to our portfolio, coupled with Onyx's other patents that cover using another class of modified adenoviruses to treat cancer in patients having tumors which lack a second functional tumor suppressor, p53, gives Onyx a unique and dominant intellectual property position in the field of replicating viruses to treat cancer,'' said Greg Giotta, Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel at Onyx.
``We have published results from human clinical trials of ONYX-015 that demonstrate the proof-of-concept of the therapeutic virus approach,'' said Hollings C. Renton, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Onyx. ``In addition to ONYX-015 which targets tumors with defects in p53 function, Onyx has engineered therapeutic viruses to selectively replicate in and kill cancer cells based on defects in the RB function in these cells. In preclinical studies, we have shown that these viruses produce significant tumor shrinkage in animal models. We have also demonstrated that these therapeutic viruses can be armed with anticancer genes to further enhance tumor-killing power. We intend to make a decision late this year whether one of these viruses will become a clinical development candidate.''<<
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Cheers, Tuck |
