From CNN/AP --> ENMD:
Drug giant stops funding research on much-touted new cancer drug
February 10, 1999
Web posted at: 10:47 p.m. EST (0347 GMT)
PRINCETON, New Jersey (AP) -- Drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. has dropped its financial support for the development of a drug touted for cancer-fighting qualities, leaving the drug's future uncertain.
The company had an agreement with EntreMed Inc. of Rockville, Maryland, to conduct research and development on angiostatin. Under a new agreement, the much smaller EntreMed will take on all financial responsibility for laboratory research into the drug.
It's unclear, however, whether the company has the financial resources to continue the years of research needed to bring angiostatin to market. Calls made by The Associated Press to EntreMed for comment were not returned Tuesday.
Research by Dr. Judah Folkman of Children's Hospital in Boston has shown that the combination of angiostatin and the drug endostatin was able to shrink tumors in mice by cutting off the tumors' blood supply. Neither of the drugs has been tested on people.
Bristol-Myers will end almost all of its laboratory study of the protein, focusing instead on other anticancer agents, the company said. It is retaining its right to reassume development and marketing rights to a drug based on angiostatin if further research shows it to be effective.
"At this time, angiostatin protein in its present form does not meet our criteria for molecules that advance to clinical trials," said Robert Kramer, vice president of Oncology Drug Discovery for Princeton-based Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The hospital said the research agreement had no immediate effect on its working agreement with EntreMed, which also owns the license to endostatin.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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