To ALL: 5,677,178 is a nice number...
ONYX AWARDED PATENT FOR VIRAL CANCER THERAPY
Cancer Therapy Business Editors, Health/Medical Writers
RICHMOND, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 14, 1997--Onyx
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONXX) today announced that the United
States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company U.S. patent
number 5,677,178 covering methods for treating cancer using replicating
viral-based therapy. The patent specifically covers the use of modified
adenoviruses and other DNA viruses, which lack viral proteins that bind to the
tumor suppressor protein p53, to treat cancer patients whose tumors lack p53
function.
"The idea of treating cancer with a modified adenovirus originated here at Onyx
with our founder Dr. Frank McCormick," said Hollings Renton, president and
chief executive officer of Onyx. "As a company we have pursued the concept
through research, development, preclinical studies and into human clinical trials.
This patent provides protection for our leading position as developer of this novel
approach to cancer therapy." Dr. McCormick is the sole inventor listed on the
patent. He founded Onyx in 1992, and currently serves on the company's
scientific advisory board.
The role of the p53 tumor suppressor gene is to prevent replication of abnormal
DNA during the process of cell division. In normal cells, p53 detects errors in
DNA and either halts the cycle of cell division until the errors are corrected, or
forces the cell to undergo apoptosis or "cell suicide." If p53 has mutated and
become inactive, the cell's DNA continues to replicate even if it contains many
errors. As a result abnormal cells can survive and multiply. Mutations in the p53
tumor suppressor gene are the most common genetic abnormalities found in
human cancers, appearing in more than half of all cancers. One of the functions of
this gene is to shut down the cell's reproductive machinery upon viral invasion.
Viruses, however, can overcome this defense by producing special viral proteins
that disable this regulating gene.
The viruses developed by Onyx are genetically modified such that they do not
produce the proteins responsible for inactivating p53. As a result, these modified
viruses do not replicate effectively in normal cells, but do replicate in and kill
p53-deficient tumor cells. Preclinical studies of ONYX-015, which targets tumor
cells that are either p53-deficient or that have non-functioning p53, have shown
that once these mutated cancer cells are infected with the modified adenovirus,
the virus growth cycle continues to proceed unchecked and the cancer cells burst
and die. In June 1997, Onyx completed enrollment in its first Phase I study of the
ONYX-015 adenovirus in patients with recurrent and refractory cancer of the
head and neck. The company is currently conducting Phase II trials in the same
patient population. Onyx recently announced initiation of a second Phase II study
treating head and neck cancer patients with ONYX-015 in combination with
chemotherapy. In addition, Phase I trials are underway in pancreatic cancer,
ovarian cancer, and in gastrointestinal cancers that have metastasized to the liver. |
