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

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (1121)	11/19/2001 9:50:45 AM
From: Arthur Radley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1475

Monday November 19, 9:27 am Eastern Time Press Release SOURCE: Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. Angiotech Expands Study For Treatment Of Severe Psoriasis VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2001--Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ANPI - news; TSE:ANP. - news) today announced that encouraging results from its Pilot Phase 2 clinical study to assess the safety and efficacy of PAXCEED(TM), Angiotech's proprietary systemic formulation of Micellar Paclitaxel, in the treatment of severe psoriasis has led to a study extension. The initial 5 patients treated with monthly intravenous infusions over 6 months all exhibited a 50 to 75% improvement in their disease severity, and PAXCEED(TM) was determined to be safe and well-tolerated in the patient group. ``Due to the impressive results thus far, up to 13 additional patients may be enrolled into this study,'' said Andrew Blauvelt, M.D., Principal Investigator of the study at the Dermatology Branch of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. ``During this phase, patients with severe psoriasis will receive intravenous infusions once every 2 weeks in hope of inducing even greater improvements.'' As with the initial study, no other therapies for psoriasis will be given to patients during treatment, and all patients must have had previous systemic treatment (e.g., methotrexate, cyclosporine, etc.) to control their disease. The study's primary efficacy measure will be the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI). Psoriasis is a chronic, hyperproliferative, inflammatory disease of the skin that affects up to 3% of the world's population. Typically, patients have a number of reddened, scaly, well-demarcated plaques and are treated with topical medication. Extensive body surface coverage with plaques, erythrodermic psoriasis, and pustular psoriasis represent less common and more severe forms of the disease. Immune-suppressing therapies are often employed in the treatment of patients with severe psoriasis, where 20% or more of the skin surface is affected. At present, there is no cure for psoriasis. The overall cost of treating psoriasis in the U.S. has been estimated between US$1.6 and $3.2 billion per year, making the disease a major health care problem. Angiotech has demonstrated in its preclinical and Pilot Phase 2 study that PAXCEED(TM) has the potential to treat severe psoriasis. The drug has been shown to reduce inflammation, inhibit angiogenesis (tissue growth) and block the uncontrolled division of cells. Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a Canadian pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of medical device coatings and treatments for chronic inflammatory diseases through reformulation of the anticancer drug, paclitaxel. Several pharmaceutical therapies are in clinical development: PAXCEED(TM) for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (Phase 2), rheumatoid arthritis (Phase 1) and severe psoriasis (Pilot Phase 2). The paclitaxel-coated coronary stent program is currently in safety and efficacy studies worldwide. Other medical device programs include paclitaxel-loaded surgical implants for the treatment of restenosis associated with peripheral vascular surgery and for the treatment of proliferative ocular conditions.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (1121)	11/21/2001 9:44:39 PM
From: Arthur Radley	Respond to of 1475

Excellent article on psoriasis....to bad the write doesn't know the full benefit of MEDI-507.. signalsmag.com

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (1121)	11/23/2001 6:22:25 AM
From: Arthur Radley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1475

Would like to think that the Eligix system could prevent this from happening in transplants... " T-Cell Lymphoma Transmitted by Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Nov 16 - A T-cell lymphoma was transmitted by donor bone marrow from one sister to another who was being treated with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for anaplastic large-cell lymphoma of T-cell lineage. The case is described in the November 15th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Though most post-transplantation cancers originate from exposure to genotoxic agents or to Epstein-Barr virus, according to the authors, rare tumors can stem from neoplastic cells that accompany transplanted tissue. Dr. James R. Eshleman, from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues report on two sisters who both developed subcutaneous panniculitic T-cell lymphoma years after the bone marrow transplant. Findings from polymerase chain reaction analysis were suggestive of the presence of identical T-cell clones in the two tumors, the authors report. The patterns in both tumors matched the donor's germ-line pattern. "Tumor-specific polymerase chain reaction analysis of peripheral-blood cells obtained from the donor before transplantation revealed a T-cell receptor-gamma clone identical in size to that in her tumor," the researchers say, "demonstrating that her blood contained clonal T cells when her marrow cells were harvested." The donor's neoplastic T-cell clone persisted in her sister for at least 5 years before clinical evidence of the lymphoma emerged, according to the authors. "This case is a fortunately a rare occurrence," Dr. Eshleman said in e-mail comments to Reuters Health. "Since the tumor had its own unique tumor-specific genetic fingerprint (the rearranged T-cell receptor), we believe that this is one of the best-documented cases of tumor transmission during transplantation." "Since more sensitive assays need to be developed, we do not recommend any specific changes [in donor assessment] at this time," Dr. Eshleman said. He did propose "four major approaches to preventing such cases in the future: (1) greater purification of stem cells (to eliminate contaminating tumor cells), (2) aggressive screening of donors (though this donor was asymptomatic at the time of donation), (3) if donors develop tumors, design sensitive tumor-specific assays to screen transplant recipients, and (4) develop better assays to test for such clones." N Engl J Med 2001;345:1458-1463.