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Biotech / Medical : GZTC -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (738)	5/16/2002 6:17:31 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 752

Thursday May 16, 8:06 am Eastern Time Press Release SOURCE: Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc. Epicyte Pharmaceutical Advances Production of Human RSV Antibody in Plants San Diego Biopharmaceutical Company and Dow Take Antibody Production from Cell Culture to Plants to Treat Respiratory Syncytial Virus SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--May 16, 2002-- Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that produces human antibodies from plants, today announced that its production partner, The Dow Chemical Company, is growing the first greenhouse plant lines to yield a treatment for RSV -- respiratory syncytial virus -- an illness that hospitalizes 90,000 infants every year and may be second only to influenza as the cause of wintertime respiratory ailments among the elderly. As part of the companies' strategic alliance, Dow is licensed to use Epicyte's proprietary technology to produce in corn Epicyte's RSV antibody product, known as R-19. Ultimately, the alliance calls for Dow to act as the contract manufacturer to grow the crop, then extract and purify the antibodies under cGMP conditions. Epicyte will submit R-19 for clinical trials and, upon FDA approval, will market and sell the drug. "Today's announcement represents a significant milestone in Epicyte's strategy to target common inflammatory and infectious diseases that go widely untreated because traditional technology is unable to produce sufficient quantities of antibodies," said Mich Hein, Ph.D., president of Epicyte. "Plant-grown antibodies represent an easy and cost-effective way to produce large amounts of antibodies to treat a broad range of diseases." The greenhouse plant lines announced today will generate seeds containing the genes for the RSV antibody. In the next stage of development, these seeds will be planted to grow a crop large enough to produce usable amounts of R-19. "The R-19 antibody against RSV represents the fifth protein in the Dow/Epicyte alliance that Dow has successfully placed into its proprietary plant expression system," said Kurt Hoeprich, director of market development for Dow Plant-Based Biopharmaceuticals. "We are excited about progressing this opportunity and ultimately delivering purified bulk drug to Epicyte." The increased capacity offered by plant-based production using Epicyte's proprietary technology combined with Dow's expression system, crop growth expertise and pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities, can effectively address the strong demand for monoclonal antibodies, expected to be an $8 billion market by 2004. Epicyte's treatments for common infectious diseases, such as RSV and herpes, also are expected to have distinct advantages over traditional antibody treatments. For example, Epicyte's therapeutics can be administered topically, or in the case of RSV, through inhalants, while most antibodies must be administered by injection. Epicyte has a pipeline of monoclonal antibodies focused on new options for treating major healthcare problems, including herpes simplex virus, human papilloma virus, HIV, Clostridium difficile, Alzheimer's Disease, ulcerative colitis and hepatitis viruses. Last month, Epicyte and Dow began increasing the scale of production for HX8, a treatment for the herpes simplex virus II, an illness that affects 50 million people in the U.S. Epicyte expects to begin Phase I clinical trials of HX8 in 2003. Dow is a leading science and technology company that provides innovative chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to many essential consumer markets. With annual sales of $28 billion, Dow serves customers in 170 countries and a wide range of markets that are vital to human progress. Committed to the principles of sustainable development, Dow and its 50,000 employees seek to balance economic, environmental and social responsibilities. For additional information visit www.dow.com. About Epicyte Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics to treat inflammatory and infectious diseases. The company's proprietary technology for producing antibodies in plants allows Epicyte to address an unmet need -- making antibody treatments for common infectious diseases in large enough quantities for practical widespread use. High production costs associated with traditional methods for producing antibodies have limited their use as a disease treatment. Epicyte's technology for growing antibodies in plants is scalable and cost effective. For additional information visit www.epicyte.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc. Debra Robertson, Ph.D., 858/554-0281 drobertson@epicyte.com or GCS Public Relations Rick Cook, 858/458-5835 rcook@gcs-pr.com