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Biotech / Medical : Indications -- Psoriasis/Chronic Inflammation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Icebrg who wrote (275)	9/23/2002 9:01:15 AM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 631

They seem, to me, to be terribly sloppy when describing this antibody. What is the mechanism? Anti-CD4 as a therapeutic has been of interest since the days of Noel Warner and BD's therapeutic program. What makes this effort different? There is tons of data saying that epitope selection might be important, but nobody has made it stick re. data on human cells, IMO. Is there any sophistication here?

To: Icebrg who wrote (275)	10/4/2002 11:11:55 AM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 631

Swede researchers apply for psoriasis gene patent Friday October 4, 11:03 am ET STOCKHOLM, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Swedish researchers who have identified the gene that causes psoriasis, a skin disease affecting some 100 million people worldwide, said on Friday they had applied for a global patent on their findings. They hope the patent will help attract pharmaceuticals companies which would like to use the gene for developing an efficient remedy against the skin disorder which drug developers have found stubborn and difficult to cure. "The gene that has been found and the mechanisms it regulates give basis for a new way to think one develops drugs against psoriasis," said professor Gunnar Swanbeck who lead the research group. He said researchers could now see what changes in the gene were those leading to psoriasis, and then design drugs affecting the specific changes. Current treatment usually has severe side-effects, he said. Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition which affects around two to three percent of the population. It is caused by the body's immune systems attacking its own healthy cells, and may appear as red spots with white heads on the skin, mainly in areas such as the armpits, groin or lower abdomen. Swanbeck said he had not yet been contacted by pharmaceuticals groups interested in using the gene in their research. Several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Biogen Inc. (NasdaqNM:BGEN - News) and Genentech Inc. (NYSE:DNA - News), have identified psoriasis as a potentially lucrative market and are testing drugs for treatment of the disorder. Swanbeck's study group sent questionnaires to around 14,000 Swedish psoriasis patients to ask about occurrence of the disease in their close relatives -- psoriasis is hereditary. It then picked around 1,000 families to study closer and was able to publish its research in the magazine "Genomics" in March this year. Note: According to Swedish news media the research was previously supported by GSK, who however choose to discontinue the support. Ice