About the conference....
Wednesday December 9, 11:57 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Flurry of Cancer Coups Follows Major Conference
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1998--While Christmas shoppers troop to the
mall, biotechnology researchers trek to year-end conferences to report the latest efforts of
their companies to combat major diseases.
We're waiting for numbers on retailers' success, but the data are back from biotech: it's been a banner year.
''Industry conferences are integral to the inner workings of the drug-development process,'' explained Tim Quast of Informed
Investors Forum in Sacramento, Calif., which hosts the Cancer Forum in Seattle Dec. 12 (See www.informedinvestors.com for
details).
''They are rallying points,'' Quast added, ''for all the parties involved in the process -- scientists, research facilities,
biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives and investors -- where everyone can compare notes, reinforce the validity of their
efforts and offer glimpses into major advances. It's always exciting.''
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) held its 40th annual conference this week in Miami, and an outbreak of major
announcements has followed.
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and BioTransplant (Nasdaq: BTRN - news) reported positive results on a new
therapy for treating blood cell cancers that re-programs the immune system and replaces cancerous blood cells. Aastrom
Biosciences (Nasdaq:ASTM - news) said its researchers were successfully growing sufficient numbers of umbilical cord blood
cells as a promising source of replacement cells in bone marrow transplants.
Also, research funded by Genentech (NYSE:GNE - news) and Pharmacia & Upjohn (NYSE:PNU - news) showed that a
genetically engineered drug stimulated stem cells -- the body's primitive bone marrow cells and the ultimate source of all blood
cells -- to migrate out of the bone marrow and into the bloodstream, thus preserving a source of stem cells during
chemotherapy, which kills both healthy and cancerous cells.
Seattle's own Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) presented data at ASH on a potential new treatment for
cancer that could make the indiscriminate cell destruction caused by chemotherapy a thing of the past. The research effort
connects an antibody to chemotherapy molecules to specifically target cancerous cells.
Dr. Leland Hartwell, Director of the FHCRC, keynotes the only conference for individual investors focused on cancer, the
Seattle Cancer Forum on Dec. 12 at the Downtown Hilton. For details call Informed Investors Forum at 800/992-4683.
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