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Biotech / Medical : Biotransplant(BTRN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (968)	7/28/2001 12:57:23 PM
From: Arthur Radley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1475

Rick, Were you aware of this news release...."Infigen Awarded Significant U.S. Patent for Farm Animal Cloning; Award Brings Cloning Even Closer to Commercial Applications by Enhancing Cell Growth Rate PR Newswire, Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 15:08 /FROM PR NEWSWIRE MINNEAPOLIS 612-331-7800/ [STK] [IN] AGR BIO MTC [SU] TO BUSINESS, SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY EDITORS: Infigen Awarded Significant U.S. Patent for Farm Animal Cloning; Award Brings Cloning Even Closer to Commercial Applications by Enhancing Cell Growth Rate DEFOREST, Wis., June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Infigen, Inc., announced today that the company has been awarded another patent in a series of issued U.S. patents that encompass essential fundamental steps for the cloning of mammals. Several patents issued worldwide cover critical elements of Infigen's proprietary nuclear transfer (NT) technology platform. Infigen is a privately held biotechnology company merging genomics and reproductive technologies to advance both animal agriculture and human health. "Infigen has a superior success rate in nuclear transfer cloning in farm mammals, relative to the industry worldwide. Much of our success is derived from the specific proprietary processes for mature oocyte activation covered under this new patent," said Walter Simson, Chief Executive Officer of Infigen. The patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,194,202, together with previously granted U.S. Patent Nos. 6,077,710; 5,843,754, and 5,496,720, cover critical steps for the activation of a cloned cell. This is a critical step of the process that enables a fully-grown mammal, such as a lamb or calf, to be grown from a single cell. Embryo growth and development are impossible without activation of the mature oocyte. Processes covered by relevant Infigen patents are expected to eventually lessen the cost and complexity of cloning transgenic cattle and other livestock. These may facilitate production of large herds that can be quickly tailored for the harvesting of both specific medicinal and nutritional products. The new patent affords Infigen a substantial extension of its intellectual property portfolio. This covers all uses of NT-related cloning of mammalian cells, including livestock such as cattle and pigs, for all agriculture and human health applications worldwide. The new patent also recognizes Infigen's innovative application of electrofusion, the delivery of an electrical pulse in a specific chemical environment to induce fusion. "The core of this newly recognized intellectual property is a proprietary 'maintenance' period we have developed for the mammalian oocyte, a critical step that enhances fusion of the nuclear material from the donor cell with the cytoplasm of the oocyte," said Dr. Michael Bishop, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Infigen. By developing the "maintenance period," Infigen has been successful in enhancing the mature oocyte's rate of growth. "This benefit translates directly into greater efficiencies -- i.e., higher rate of successful animal pregnancies -- than has been demonstrated at competing companies," said Dr. Bishop. Nuclear transfer allows the "programming" of cells with specific insertions of genetic instructions from one species to be obtained from another. This is known as the "transgenic" process. Authors of U.S. Patent No. 6,194,202, entitled "Parthenogenic oocyte activation," include Joan L. Susko-Parrish, David L. Northey, M. Lorraine Leibfried Rutledege, and Steven L. Stice, all of the University of Wisconsin. Infigen, Inc. wholly owns the patent. Infigen has developed NT processes to allow farm animals to be encoded to produce a safe, unlimited, cost-effective supply of therapeutic hormones in milk and allow the commercial-scale production of pigs with internal organs and cells for transplantation to humans with end stage organ disease. ABOUT INFIGEN, INC. AND GENMARK: Infigen, Inc., formed in August 1997, is a privately-held biotechnology company commercializing its proprietary nuclear transfer cloning in the human health and animal agriculture fields. The company has other existing strategic partnerships with Pharming N.V. to produce human therapeutics from the milk of transgenic cattle and Immerge BioTherapeutics, Inc., a joint venture of Novartis Pharma AG and BioTransplant Incorporated (NASDAQ:BTRN), to develop genetically modified miniature swine for the study of xenotransplantation (transplantation between species). In 2000, Infigen was issued a U.S. patent covering critical processes for cloning any mammal, excluding humans, utilizing Nuclear Transfer. Infigen markets its agricultural products under the trademark name of Genmark. In addition to its AgriCloning(TM) products, Genmark also markets marker assisted selection, diagnostic testing, and tissue/cell harvesting and storage. For further information on Infigen and Genmark, visit infigen.com and genmarkag.com

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (968)	7/30/2001 10:56:41 AM
From: jayhawk969	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1475

Okay who is he recommending now? (See last paragraph.) By Michael Murphy Editor, Biotech Investing July 27, 2001 If you've followed the news at all recently (and perhaps even if you haven't), you've probably heard about the ongoing debate over federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. What exactly are stem cells, and why are they important? Quite simply, they are the mothers of all cells -- touted as possible cures for everything from Alzheimer's to diabetes to Parkinson's -- and they hold incredible promise for both patients and smart investors. Here's why. Imagine having a blank cell that could grow into any kind of cell, tissue or organ in the human body. For example, healthy heart cells that could repair damage suffered in a heart attack. Stem cells have that kind of revolutionary potential. In fact, they were considered the "Breakthrough of the Year" in 1999 by Science magazine. Scientific American has said, "Stem cells might be a cure-all of sorts, basically one-stop shopping for repairing anything that ails you." I couldn't have said it better. Once, long ago, you were nothing but a stem cell. Human embryonic stem cells are literally the mothers of all cells -- the daughters of the original fertilized egg you once were. When you were born, you still had a heavy concentration of stem cells, 1-in-500 by some estimates. As long as you live, you'll have stem cells in your body, but they become fewer as you age. (Elder humans are thought to have fewer than 1-in-500,000.) Indeed, stem cell loss is one of the reasons we age. Cells divide a certain number of times, depending upon their function. Until recently, it was thought that human cells divide about 50 times and then die off, usually damaging innocent bystander cells in the process. But then it was found that the "divide 50 times" rule was true mostly in laboratory test tubes, not in the human body. For example, the cells lining your intestine divide thousands of times before growing old, and so do the cells lining your lungs. By contrast, hearts have very few stem cells in an adult, so hearts cannot renew themselves naturally. The same is true for the islet cells of the pancreas, where insulin is made. But the day may come soon when new insulin-producing cells can be grown from stem cells, curing diabetes. It was only in 1998 that human embryonic stem cells were first grown in culture. (The company that did it saw its stock jump 150% in one day!) Each pluripotent stem cell (the inner cell that results after an egg is fertilized and starts to divide), given the appropriate growth factors at the appropriate moments during development, has the potential to become any kind of cell in your body. Now, one of the key issues here is "giving the right growth factors at the right moments." This is a rock over which many companies have stumbled, most notably those specializing in the central nervous system. The brain, for example, is very particular about which growth factors it wants and where. Thus, several companies like Regeneron, which dabbled in diseases like Parkinson's a decade ago, came up with big fat zeros at the time. But as you can see, the day is approaching when stem cells will open up a whole new world of medical possibilities to patients…and huge profit opportunities for smart investors who own the right companies. I'm currently recommending two such companies to clients of my Biotech Investing service. One in particular has some of the best technology and many of the patents in that area. It's a company with quite possibly the most valuable technology in biotech today, and it's a stock that every biotech investor should own.