Thread: News! NIC validates Folkman research; from AP wire
,f,13 - PM-CANCERDRUG,1stLd-Writethru f0054 02-11 0395 9---- -
PM-Cancer Drug, 1st Ld-Writethru, f0054,0394
Government scientists duplicate results of anti-cancer drug in mice
Eds: SUBs grafs 6-7 'On Tuesday ...' to CORRECT spelling of Bristol-Myers and UPDATE morning stock price, picking up 8th graf bgng 'EntreMed said ...'; a version also moving on general news wires.
BOSTON (AP) _ Government scientists have finally been able to reproduce a scientist's highly publicized results for an anti-cancer drug and are now seeking to begin the first human tests, The Boston Globe reported today.
The breakthrough using the drug endostatin came only when National Cancer Institute scientists conducted the experiment in the Children's Hospital laboratory of researcher Dr. Judah Folkman, who discovered it and found that it reduced tumors in mice.
Last fall, NCI scientists said they could not match Folkman's promising test results using a small quantity of the drug Folkman sent them. Folkman attributed the failure to the drug's sensitivity to handling, storage and the way it's administered. The institute, in Frederick, Md., then sent researchers to Folkman's lab in November and December.
''This substantiates the idea that these are technical issues'' that led to the failure at the NCI laboratory, Dr. Robert Wittes, deputy director of the institute, told the Globe. ''Now we will move to facilities in Frederick and try to reproduce the results down here,'' he said.
Folkman gained worldwide attention last spring when The New York Times reported in a page one story on his findings that endostatin and a related drug, angiostatin, shrunk tumors in rats by cutting off their blood supply.
On Tuesday, the Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical company said it would no longer work with a partnering company to develop angiostatin, saying the project had not produced a drug that was consistently effective.
The partner, the tiny biotech company EntreMed, said it would press ahead with tests on angiostatin, but investors sliced the company's value in half Wednesday after Bristol-Myers quit plans to pay for human testing. Today, shares of EntreMed rebounded $2.50, or by 19.5 percent, to $15.37 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
EntreMed said it plans to seek Food and Drug Administration approval to begin human testing of angiostatin and endostatin later this year.
AP-ES-02-11-99 1045EST
Regards, M2
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