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Biotech / Medical : Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (410)	5/16/2000 9:28:00 AM
From: scaram(o)uche	Respond to of 1169

competitive project, one of about 10E6 for inflammation, just FI..... Tuesday May 16, 9:00 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: Ciblex Corporation Ciblex Scientists Establish Oral Activity of Their Anti-Inflammatory Drug Candidate in Mice SAN DIEGO, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists at Ciblex Corporation announced today that they have demonstrated that oral administration of their small molecule compound, CBX10913, blocks the release of interleukin-1Beta (IL-1Beta), a protein associated with inflammation, into the bloodstream of mice. ``This is a critical first step in our goal to identify new therapeutic compounds for arthritis and inflammation,'' says Gary Hooper, Ciblex President and Chief Executive Officer. ``The fact that the compound, with little optimization, has sufficient activity to be orally active, gives us reason to believe that we may have a full fledged preclinical lead.'' An orally active drug to fight inflammatory diseases like arthritis is a more desirable treatment than injection. Based on these in vivo studies and previous work with cells in culture, the Company believes that CBX10913 will treat inflammation by preventing the release of IL-1Beta, a protein that uses a unique export pathway in cells to enter the bloodstream where it plays a key role in mediating significant human inflammatory diseases like arthritis. ``From the beginning, we felt it was important to establish that protein export targets could lead to new classes of therapeutic compounds,'' said Andrew Baird, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Development. ``Recent advances have provided virtually unlimited chemical libraries containing potential drug candidates; however, validating biological targets for these compounds represents an important rate-limiting step in drug discovery.'' Ciblex's approach is to focus on well-characterized targets like IL-1Beta and other disease-related proteins that use the protein export pathways. The Company has identified a novel ``Protein Export Pathway'' that is different from the traditional secretion pathway. Each of the few proteins that exit the cell by Export has its own signature pathway. By disrupting the Export pathway that is specific to IL-1Beta, the Company believes that other cellular functions will be left intact. Competitive drug discovery efforts to disable the IL-1Beta target are aimed at gene activation, signal transduction, the design of receptor antagonists or, alternatively, the processing of its precursor to active IL-1Beta. The Ciblex approach intercepts both mature and precursor IL-1Beta before it leaves the cell by targeting the specific cellular machinery that exports the protein. Dr. Baird described the Ciblex path to drug discovery: ``Our cell-based screens focus on protein trafficking and serve as functional tests for drug activity. Compounds can be transferred to preclinical studies much faster than from molecular screens. Once validated in our cell-based screens, we determine the precise molecular target of the drug-like compound selected.'' In normal mice, there is no circulating IL-1Beta. By specifically stimulating an inflammatory response, the concentration of IL-1Beta in their blood increases substantially. While CBX10913 in its current form can drastically reduce the IL-1Beta found in the bloodstream of these mice, Ciblex is identifying other analogs and oral formulations that may be even more beneficial. With multiple effective formulations, the Company hopes to increase the probability that the benefits of CBX10913 will translate from mice to humans. Formed in 1998, Ciblex Corporation is a privately held biotechnology company based in San Diego with technology originating from Scripps Research Institute and Selective Genetics, Inc. The Company uses its expertise in protein trafficking and protein export to discover and develop small molecule therapies for human diseases. Ciblex has developed the first commercial effort directed at blocking protein export from cells, which the Company has named ``Exhibins.'' Ciblex's venture capital financing has been provided by Domain Associates, Falcon Technologies, Biotechnology Investments Ltd., and Biotech Vest. Ciblex is located at 11025 Roselle Street, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92121. Contact: Ciblex Corporation, Gary Hooper, 858-546-7848, or IR PR Strategies, Kim Malasky or Laura Hansen, 858-860-0266. SOURCE: Ciblex Corporation