Threaders, you might be wondering why the market showed so little reaction to the news release two days ago. I dug up some old releases which might explain why. This is from January 13, 1999
Paracelsian Inc. announced today the completion of testing of four potential anti-cancer drug agents in cell culture systems at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. All four samples, including the compound Andrographolide for which Paracelsian
has a U.S. Patent Pending, demonstrated significant anti-cancer activity against a human breast cancer cell line. The samples were selected from Paracelsian's extensive library of nearly 2,800 Traditional Chinese Medicines.
While all four samples demonstrated anti-cancer activity, Andrographolide and two other samples were more active than the well known anti-cancer drug Paclitaxel in the same assay. In addition, Andrographolide and two other samples exhibited strong potential as effective agents against multi-drug resistant tumors.
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Compare this with the news release of March 8, 1995:
Paracelsian Inc. announced today results of a preclinical in vitro study conducted at Roswell Park Cancer Institute's Department of Experimental Therapeutics in Buffalo, New York with its ancticancer drg androgrpholide on prostate cancer cell lines. The company's drug candidate was tested against three prostate cancer cell lines. The study found that andrographolide was as effective as the cytotoxic drug cisplatin. . . .
The Roswell Park report also describes two additional herbals extracts from Paracelsian's library of extracts that were more potent than cisplatin against prostate cancer cells. The company had previously determined that these two herbal extracts were also effective against breast and liver cancer cells . . .
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This is from an April 11, 1995 press release:
Paracelsian Inc. announced today that it has completed initial screening of the six anti-cancer compounds obtained from China. Using its proprietary screening technology, Paracelsian identified four of the six compounds as having anti-cancer properties, equal or better than serveal widely used drugs such as etoposide and quercetin. The company will be condcuting additional tests of these compounds in three prostate cancer cell lines at the Roswell Park Memorial Cancer Institute in Buffalo.
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This is from a March 7 1996 release:
Studies at the Verginia Prostate Center confimed that PN 27,1 (later renamed AndroCar) a drug developed by Paracelsian "effectively blocks the secretion of prostate-specific antigen and the growth of prostate cancer cells," the Ithaca, New York-based company said.
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After reading Jan 13, the market probably said, "What's new? Your just duplicating old work. As I see it, based on the news releases, three things might be new.
1) The earlier work done at Roswell was based on prostate cancer cell lines whereas this was done on breast cancer cell lines. I don't know, but perhaps this is the first time the company has verified by an outside source that their drug candidates fight breast cancer.
2) The current news release stated PRLN's drug candidates worked as well or better than the anti-cancer drug Paclitaxel. The previous releases stated they worked as well or better than cisplatin, etoposide and quercetin. This is a question for Hank or Rick: Is Paclitaxel a more potent anti-carcinogen than the other three drugs? Is the fact that Paclitaxel was used as the control significant?
3) The current news release stated:
"Andrographolide and two other samples exhibited strong potential as effective agents against multi-drug resistant tumors"
This is a significant claim!!! It is the first time I remember seeing this. Has anyone else seen this claim made before for any of PRLN's durg candidates? I think the market might be missing the importance of this.
Any other comments on the similarities and diferrences between the current and past results?
Robin |
