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

To: nigel bates who wrote (220)	9/19/2001 1:31:15 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Respond to of 1022

Wednesday September 19, 6:01 am Eastern Time Press Release SOURCE: Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc. Epicyte Receives CalTIP Grant to Fund Plantibody Product Development California Grant for Epicyte to Develop Sexual Health Products SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 19, 2001--Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc. today announced that the Company has been awarded a grant from the California Technology Investment Partnership (CalTIP) for the development of Plantibody(TM) products to prevent the sexual transmission of viral infections. The CalTIP grant, valued at $150,000, will help support Epicyte's greenhouse facilities and staff as well as marketing studies for the products. The marketing and acceptability studies will be completed in conjunction with investigators at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. The California Technology Investment partnership is a competitive grant program that provides funding to California companies to accelerate commercialization of their innovative products. The program helps leverage federal funds. Epicyte currently has three Small Business Innovative Research/Advanced Technology (SBIR-AT) grants from the NIH for the development of sexual health products. ``The receipt of this grant from the State of California provides further momentum to the Epicyte product pipeline that uses Plantibodies(TM) technology to prevent the transmission of Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV),'' said Kevin Whaley, Director of Antibody Discovery at Epicyte. ``There are currently no vaginal microbicides available to prevent the sexual transmission of pathogens and we are committed to developing products that prevent these diseases.'' ``Microbicides will have a significant impact in California and the world since they will help individuals to maintain sexual and reproductive health by preventing the sexual transmission of pathogens,'' said Dr. Bethany Holt Young, Director of the California Microbicide Initiative (CaMI) and a co-investigator on this study at UC Berkeley. ``The state's support through the CalTIP program for innovative and critical technology is important to the continued development of microbicides in California.'' The California Microbicide Initiative is a consortium of companies and public health advocates that promote the development of microbicides. Each year an estimated 15 million new sexually transmitted infections occur among Americans over the age of 15. Over $8.4 billion is spent annually in the United States to treat the short- and long-term consequences of sexually transmitted diseases. Epicyte's Plantibodies(TM) technology can be used to produce unlimited quantities of pharmaceutical-grade human antibodies and related molecules in plants. Manufacturing antibodies in plants holds great appeal because monoclonal antibodies are the largest product segment in biotechnology. Current antibody production has limited capacity and is an expensive process, with costs to scale-up the manufacture of antibodies approaching $400 million per facility. Epicyte's Plantibodies(TM) technology turns agricultural plants into antibody factories, enabling the production of antibodies and related molecules at prices considerably lower than traditional animal cell culture-based systems, while also significantly reducing manufacturing capital requirements. Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc., founded in 1996, is a San Diego-based company developing antibody products for infectious disease and sexual health using its Plantibody(TM) technology. The company has extensive intellectual property for production of antibodies in plants licensed from The Scripps Research Institute. More information about Epicyte is available at www.epicyte.com. Contact: Epicyte Pharmaceutical, Inc. Christopher Clement, Chief Executive Officer 858/554-0281 cclement@epicyte.com or Susan E. Atkins & Associates Anette Breindl, Ph.D., 858/860-0266 abreindl@irpr.com

To: nigel bates who wrote (220)	9/27/2001 11:19:35 PM
From: aknahow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1022

IP fight, BSTE vs XOMA. On September 24, 2001, the Court denied Biosite’s motion for a preliminary injunction, dismissing Biosite’s declaratory judgment action, which would have prevented XOMA from terminating the license agreements. The Court found that Biosite had failed to show a likelihood or reasonable probability of success on the merits and stated, "in light of a weak showing of a likelihood of success, Biosite’s similarly weak showing of irreparable harm is insufficient to warrant a preliminary injunction." In addition, on September 26, 2001, the Court granted XOMA’s motion to dismiss Biosite’s declaratory judgment action in its entirety, deciding to allow only XOMA’s separately filed direct action to proceed. As previously announced, XOMA has filed a complaint against Biosite seeking monetary damages, injunctive and other relief for infringement of XOMA’s bacterial cell expression technology patents, fraud and misrepresentation, breach of contract, misappropriation and unfair business practices. The Court also granted certain portions of Biosite’s motion to dismiss XOMA’s action but has given XOMA leave to amend its court papers to clarify certain elements of its case, which XOMA intends to do in a timely manner.