XYOTAX Patent Allowance Provides Exclusivity in Europe Until 2017
Tuesday February 8, 7:00 am ET
Patent Broadens Global Market Potential for XYOTAX
SEATTLE, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) (Nasdaq: CTIC; Nuovo Mercato) announced that the European Patent Office has issued an allowance for a patent directed to XYOTAX(TM) (paclitaxel poliglumex). The European patent, when issued, will have the same term as existing U.S. patents that provide patent protection for XYOTAX until 2017. CTI has an exclusive license to these patent properties. Currently, the Company is investigating XYOTAX in three phase III pivotal trials in non-small cell lung cancer and expects to release top-line data from the first of these trials, known as STELLAR 3, in late March or early April of this year.
"A European patent will complement CTI's existing licensed patent portfolio, extending XYOTAX's exclusivity to the European market," stated James A. Bianco, M.D. President and CEO of CTI. "This is an important step toward securing the global market potential of XYOTAX as we approach its launch in early 2006."
About XYOTAX(TM)
XYOTAX(TM) (paclitaxel poliglumex) is a pharmaceutical that links paclitaxel, the active ingredient in Taxol(R), to a biodegradable polyglutamate polymer. This polymer technology results in a new chemical entity, designed to selectively deliver higher and potentially more effective levels of active chemotherapeutics to tumors. Blood vessels in tumor tissue, unlike blood vessels in normal tissue, are porous to molecules like polyglutamate. Based on preclinical studies, it appears that XYOTAX(TM) is preferentially trapped in the tumor blood vessels allowing significantly more of the dose of chemotherapy to localize in the tumor. Because more of the chemotherapy is targeted to the tumor and the levels of chemotherapy delivered to normal tissue are reduced, XYOTAX(TM) may be more effective and have less severe side effects than currently available chemotherapeutics.
About Cell Therapeutics, Inc.
Headquartered in Seattle, CTI is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing an integrated portfolio of oncology products aimed at making cancer more treatable. For additional information, please visit www.cticseattle.com. This press release includes forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, the outcome of which could materially and/or adversely affect actual future results. Specifically, the risks and uncertainties that could affect the development of XYOTAX include risks associated with preclinical and clinical developments in the biopharmaceutical industry in general and with CTI's products under development in particular including, without limitation, the potential failure of XYOTAX to prove safe and effective for treatment of ovarian cancer, determinations by regulatory, patent and administrative governmental authorities, competitive factors, technological developments, costs of developing, producing and selling XYOTAX, and the risk factors listed or described from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, the Company's most recent filings on Forms 10-K, 8-K, and 10-Q. CTI is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. |
