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Gold/Mining/Energy : Response Biomedical (V.RBM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dick Martin who wrote (377)	1/23/2001 1:27:55 PM
From: Dick Martin	Respond to of 655

Here is another company that is working on a prostrate cancer test PROCYON BIOPHARMA twst.com PSP, which stands for prostate secretory protein. PSP is a naturally occurring human protein that is involved in the regulatory mechanism of prostate cell growth. The company has purified this molecule and is using it to reduce tumors in prostate cancer, especially in end of the line patients who have so-called hormone resistant tumors. PSP works in these tumors by inducing apoptosis, which is programmed cell death. The PSP-based therapeutic under development is planned to start human clinical trials in the second half of 2001. This technology also has diagnostic applicability and we’re developing a test for both the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. The latter is important because the currently used diagnostic test, the PSA test, has limited prognostic application, as opposed to the potential PSP test. TWST: How does it do that? Mr. Mäder: The levels of PSP in prostate cancer tissues have an inverse correlation to the Gleason grade of prostate cancer, which is used to measure the severity of cancer. So the higher the grade, the lower the PSP levels in prostate tissue biopsies, the more aggressive the cancer. TWST: What do you have to do to get this product into the marketplace as a diagnostic? Mr. Mäder: For a diagnostic, Procyon is currently working on an ELISA test. So once the test is validated and developed, by I would say next summer, we will build collaborations with leading researchers and clinicians, probably here at McGill University, and start using it. Subsequently we plan to license it out to a company that is already in a testing environment by the end of next year. TWST: Why license it? Mr. Mäder: Procyon’s business plan, or mission is — we are basically a research and development organization. We develop products, which are at the preclinical stage and obtain proof-of-concept in animals. Then we try to confirm the data we have produced from animal studies in man as quickly as possible, meaning Phase I and Phase II. Once we have proved that it works and the toxicity is okay, we license it out to pharmaceutical companies to finalize the Phase III and to market and sell it. Our revenue stream is derived from upfront, milestone payments and royalties from eventual sales of the products by the pharmaceutical companies. That’s how we function. TWST: Can you get this product into the diagnostic market prior to having it go through the clinical trials? Mr. Mäder: I would say so but essentially you do both together because once the PSP therapeutic goes into clinical trials, it will be very, very handy to have an ELISA test to measure PSP levels as well.