Press Release Source: Intradigm Corporation
Intradigm's ICS-283: First Demonstration of Clinically Viable, Systemically Administered RNA Interference Therapeutic Agent for Cancer and Ocular Angiogenesis
Friday December 10, 9:30 am ET
ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Intradigm Corporation, a leading RNA interference (RNAi) company, announced today its lead siRNA therapeutic product, ICS-283, is the subject of two separate peer reviewed scientific publications that are the first demonstration in preclinical disease models of clinically viable systemically administered RNAi therapeutics. This major milestone in the development of systemic RNAi therapeutics toward human clinical trials has been made possible by Intradigm's proprietary tissue targeted nanoparticle technology. Intradigm's ICS-283 therapeutic inhibiting pro-angiogenic factors has been shown effective by systemic delivery as a candidate treatment for cancer in research published November 1, 2004 by Nucleic Acid Research and as a treatment for ocular neovascularization diseases in research published in the December 2004 issue of American Journal of Pathology.
In the two publications, intravenous administration of Intradigm's ICS-283 demonstrated in vivo knockdown of VEGF pathway genes in both a mouse tumor model and a virus infection induced eye angiogenesis model, using a peptide targeted nanoparticle carrying short interfering RNA (siRNA), and resulted in significant inhibition of tumor growth or ocular neovascularization, respectively. These preclinical studies support product development of ICS- 283, Intradigm's leading siRNA therapeutic product, which Intradigm is planning to move into clinical trials in late 2005. These studies were conducted in collaboration with Professor Gert Storm of Utrecht University of the Netherlands and Professor Barry Rouse of University of Tennessee, and supported in part by SBIR grants from the National Cancer Institute and National Eye Institute.
"We have significantly advanced the field of RNAi therapeutics in this first ever demonstration of tissue targeted delivery of siRNA, providing tangible evidence of the broad potential for RNAi therapeutics," said Martin Woodle, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Intradigm. "We are pleased that our research progress has been recognized in these first peer reviewed publications demonstrating systemic RNAi, and excited to continue our lead in developing RNAi therapeutics for critical human diseases."
"This is a significant step forward as we seek to develop systemic targeted RNAi therapeutics for the broad-based application of RNAi to important diseases such as cancer, wet-AMD and diabetic retinopathy," said John Spears, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Intradigm Corporation. "Intradigm is poised to advance both our scientific expertise and proprietary technologies to systemic applications of RNAi therapeutics."
About RNAi
|
