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

To: nigel bates who wrote (39)	9/26/2002 8:31:21 PM
From: keokalani'nui	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70

Kaleidos Pharma, Inc. Announces Collaboration With the NIH to Investigate TGF-alpha for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease Tuesday September 24, 9:03 am ET SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 24, 2002--Kaleidos Pharma, Inc. (KPI), formerly Stem Cell Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced the signing of a Materials Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (MCRADA) with the Surgical Neurology Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (SNB/NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The agreement enables NIH researchers to obtain KPI's proprietary compound, Transforming Growth Factor alpha (TGF-alpha) to conduct non-human primate studies to evaluate the potential of TGF-alpha for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. "This is an important and prestigious collaboration which promises to accelerate the development of our lead drug, TGF-alpha," commented Dr. John M. Reno, President of KPI. "Current treatments for Parkinson's disease provide temporary relief of some of this progressive disease's distressing symptoms. This is a fundamental step forward in studies aimed at establishing more effective therapy for this common and debilitating illness." The study, which has already begun, is led by the collaboration's principal investigator, Dr. Edward H. Oldfield, chief of the Surgical Neurology Branch (SNB), and administered by Dr. Russell R. Lonser, Staff Neurosurgeon at the SNB. TGF-alpha will be delivered to the non-human primates using "Convection-Enhanced Drug Delivery" (CED), a proprietary method of drug delivery developed in Dr. Oldfield's laboratory and designed to ensure optimal delivery of the drug to bodily tissues, including the brain. These studies are focused on analyzing the proliferative effect of TGF-alpha on brain stem cells in those critical regions of the brain affected by Parkinson's disease, as well as defining drug delivery parameters in anticipation of human clinical trials. "Preliminary studies in animal models have shown substantial promise for TGF-alpha for the treatment of Parkinson's disease," stated Dr. Edward Oldfield. "Upon the successful completion of the necessary preclinical animal studies, we expect to conduct human clinical trials of TGF-alpha administered to Parkinson's disease patients using CED."