I ran a search for "Merix" in the most recent 10Q and 10K reports. Here's all that I came up with:
11-12-03 10Q
Our development of telomerase therapeutic vaccines and oncolytic viruses is partly dependent on the intellectual property of our collaborators. For example, Merix Biosciences holds the rights for the ex vivo dendritic cell technology used in our telomerase cancer vaccine trial, while we own the rights to the telomerase antigen and its use in therapeutic vaccines. If we were no longer able to use the Merix technology, we would need to develop or obtain rights to use a different ex vivo cell preparation technology and restart the trial using that different technology, or abandon entirely the development of an ex vivo telomerase vaccine, which would significantly and adversely affect our business.
3-3-03 10K
In August 2000, we initiated a collaboration with Merix Bioscience, Inc. to develop telomerase-based cancer vaccines for clinical and commercial applications using Merix's proprietary ex vivo RNA-modified dendritic cell technology platform. Under the terms of the collaboration, we sponsored preclinical studies at Duke University to confirm the safety and efficacy of hTERT-modified dendritic cells to mediate immune responses against tumors.
In October 2001, we announced that researchers at Duke University Medical Center had initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial of telomerase as an antigen for cancer immunotherapy, using the Merix dendritic cell platform. The trial is designed to assess the safety of using telomerase immunotherapy to treat metastatic prostate cancer, and is being conducted under an IND submitted by Johannes Vieweg, M.D., Associate Professor of Urology and Assistant Professor of Immunology.
The 3/21/01 10K adds: <<We [i.e., Geron and Merix] will jointly determine the clinical development plan for the combined technology.>>
I haven't found any reference to Merix having any first-offer rights. |
