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Biotech / Medical : Stressgen (VSE: SSB) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (170)	6/6/2001 6:49:47 PM
From: Heat Shock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 236

Nigel, The announcement is very positive indeed. To me, the most positive item was this sentence: These responses are not HPV-16 specific, indicating that HspE7 activity crosses multiple HPV types. For a therapy to be active across numerous sub-types of the target virus is an enormous plus. The cervical and anal dysplasias and cervical and anal cancers are caused by type 16 and a different type of Human Papilloma Virus (6 and 7, I think) cause genital warts and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). There are antibody-based vaccines out there which will be limited to acting on one sub-type of a virus, while Stressgen's therapeutic will not be. Stressgen has orphan drug status on the RRP indication. Reuters picked up thestory: Reuters: Wednesday June 6, 3:40 pm Eastern Time Stressgen stock soars on wart drug's potential TORONTO, June 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Stressgen Biotechnologies (Toronto:SSB.TO - news) soared 17 percent on Wednesday after the company said its lead drug has shown early success in treating genital warts, a sexually transmitted disease with scant treatment options and no known cure. Victoria, British Columbia-based Stressgen said its HspE7 drug, which uses stress proteins to stimulate the immune system, reduced the size of genital warts in the majority of patients tested. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons in San Diego, California, on Wednesday. The results were uncovered while Stressgen was testing HspE7 in a phase 2 study for the treatment of anal dysplasia --or the growth of abnormal cells in the anus -- in a sampling of 22 patients, 14 of which also had genital warts. After six months, 13 of the 14 patients responded to HspE7, with the warts in 10 of those patients shrinking 70 percent to 95 percent, and warts in the remaining three patients disappearing altogether. Shares of Stressgen rose as much as 17 percent, or C$1.05, to C$6.92 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday, where they have traded in a 52-week range of C$10.20 to C$4.30. The shares have gained 27 percent in the past year, outperforming the TSE biotech index, which is flat over the same period. ``New therapies are badly needed, and the possibility of an immune-based therapy is very exciting because it has the potential to avoid surgery, improve quality of life and hopefully decrease recurrence,'' said Dr. Stephen Goldstone, the lead researcher on the study, and a specialist in the field. Genital warts are estimated to affect 24 million people in the United States with a million new cases each year. Existing treatments involve surgery or creams applied to the skin, although recurrence is common within six months of treatment. Stressgen said it has completed enrollment for a phase 2 trial on the efficacy of HspE7 for genital warts, and expects full data to be available in the fourth quarter of 2001. Heat.