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Biotech / Medical : Agouron Pharmaceuticals (AGPH) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sam who wrote (4505)	6/17/1998 11:06:00 AM
From: Steve Fancy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6136

Another version...how good of news is this? Anyone? sf ========================== Agouron Reports Favorable Results Of Experimental Cancer Drug Dow Jones Online News, Wednesday, June 17, 1998 at 10:30 LA JOLLA, Calif. -(Dow Jones)- Biotechnology firm Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc. released "encouraging" results from two early-stage studies and one preclinical study of its experimental oral cancer drug, code-named AG3340. AG3340 has already been shown to inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals. The compound works by blocking the growth of matrix metalloproteases, or MMPs, a family of enzymes that has been linked to the growth and spread of cancer cells. By supressing the enzymes, the drug could allow a tumor to be overgrown with healthy tissue. The drug also has antiangiogenesis effects, meaning it inhibits new blood vessel formation, which cuts off the nutrient supply to tumors and essentially "starves" them. The angiogenesis technique recently became well-publicized as the latest technique to gain favor in cancer research. Agouron (AGPH) has previously said it expects to file AG3340 with the Food and Drug Administration in 2000. In its latest report, Agouron said disease was stabilized in more than 25% of 47 patients in a Phase I study on patients with advanced lung, prostate, kidney and colorectal cancers and sarcoma and melanoma. The patients were treated for periods of 16 to 40 weeks. The drug was found to be generally well tolerated in the study, the company said. A separate Phase I study found AG3340 in combination with chemotherapy to be generally well tolerated among patients with advanced prostate cancer resistant to hormonal therapies. The study evaluated the use of AG3340 in combination with Novantrone, a prostate cancer drug sold by Immunex Corp. plus prednisone in 15 patients with advanced prostate cancer. The favorable results from Phase I studies led the company to proceed with advanced stage studies. Meanwhile, a preclinical study of AG3340 found the drug to be a potent inhibitor of the growth of chemotherapy-resistant human non-small-cell lung cancer tumors in mice. The drug resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in tumor growth by up to 65% compared to controls, Agouron said. The study also demonstrated a key action of AG3340 by finding a 77% reduction in the formation of new tumor-associated blood vessels. Copyright (c) 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.