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

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (220)	7/17/1998 1:13:00 PM
From: John M. Fitisoff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 810

Hi Frank, I am relatively new to ONXX and saw the CHIR sales before I started buying. It didn't bother me. I'm pretty sure that they are selling because they are trying to tighten their focus and divest themselves of things that are not an integral part of what they perceive to be their core business. Regarding CHIR as a partner, think that there's something in the most recent 10K about how ONXX has the right to propose a gene therapy collaboration with CHIR, which may or may not mean that CHIR gets first crack at any gene therapy projects conceived by ONXX. I was really surprised to see the stock dip this low. The Phase II data looked really good. Everyone's a Phase III snob nowadays (probably rightfully so) but it's hard to argue with the results that they've had so far.

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (220)	9/8/1998 11:41:00 AM
From: Uncle Frank	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 810

Onyx Receives Second Patent for Viral Cancer Therapy biz.yahoo.com RICHMOND, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 3, 1998--Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONXX - news) today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company U.S. patent number 5,801,029 covering methods for treating cancer using replicating viral-based therapy. The patent specifically covers the use of modified adenoviruses and adenoviral compositions, and other DNA viruses, which lack viral proteins that bind to the tumor suppressor protein Rb, to treat cancer patients whose tumors lack Rb function. ''The Rb patent, coupled with the p53 patent we received in October of last year, provides critical protection for our leading position as developers of modified adenoviruses for the treatment of cancer,'' said Hollings Renton, president and chief executive officer of Onyx. One of the hallmarks of human cancers is the loss of cell cycle checkpoint regulation, which results in uncontrolled cellular proliferation. The retinoblastoma gene product (pRb) plays a key role in preventing the uncontrolled progression of normal cells from G1 into S phase of the cell cycle until the appropriate proliferation signals are received. pRb function appears to be lost in almost all cancer cells, occurring as a result of Rb deletion or through other mechanisms, thus causing cancer cells to progress continuously through the cell cycle. Onyx scientists have created a number of novel adenoviruses that are mutated in the regions of the viral genome that interact with Rb. The company has reported encouraging activity with these viruses in preclinical models. Efforts are now underway at Onyx to optimize the anti-tumor efficacy of these novel viruses. ''The Rb program is a natural expansion of our therapeutic virus concept,'' Renton said. ''We are following the same approach in developing the Rb-specific virus as we did in developing the ONYX-015 therapeutic virus, which targets p53-deficient tumor cells,'' Renton said. ONYX-015 is currently progressing through Phase II human clinical trials in head and neck cancer and Phase I trials in pancreatic cancer, gastrointestinal cancer metastatic to the liver, and ovarian cancer, Renton noted. Frank McCormick, Ph.D., F.R.S., is the sole inventor listed on the patent. Dr. McCormick founded Onyx in 1992 and currently serves on the company's scientific advisory board.