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Gold/Mining/Energy : Vasogen-- VAS on TSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Walter Amstutz who wrote (171)	3/13/1999 11:15:00 PM
From: tnsaf	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 377

A little old, but I haven't seen it posted here. --------------------------------------------- Tuesday February 16, 8:39 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Vasogen Technology Prevents Graft-Versus-Host Disease in Pre-Clinical Model MISSISSAUGA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 1999--Vasogen Inc. (ME:VAS - news) announced today results from a pre-clinical study of Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD) which demonstrated that pre-treatment of donor bone marrow with the Company's proprietary technology, VAS981, protected against the development of GvHD. Graft-versus-Host Disease is a potentially fatal complication of the thousands of allogeneic bone marrow transplants performed annually to treat certain types of cancer. The research was conducted by Dr. David Spaner at the Division of Cancer Biology Research, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto. The 20-week study was designed to investigate the ability of VAS981, compared with standard immunosuppression therapy and untreated controls, to prevent GvHD in a pre-clinical animal model in which stem cells (the cells required to reconstitute the patient's bone marrow) were transplanted from a genetically unrelated donor. In the untreated group, transplantation of the stem cells resulted in severe GvHD, causing death within two weeks. The group that received cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant drug widely used to treat GvHD, developed fatal GvHD within three weeks following transplantation. However, in the third group, when the donor stem cells were treated with VAS981 prior to transplantation, no animals developed GvHD for the duration of the experiment. This protection was associated with a normalisation of the imbalance between CD8 and CD4 T-cells seen in GvHD. ''The aim of our work with Vasogen's VAS981 technology is to develop a rapid, simple and effective method to eliminate GvHD,'' said Dr. Spaner. ''This would represent a major advance in the treatment of malignancies of the blood that could extend the use of bone marrow transplantation to many more patients in need of this life-saving procedure.'' Bone marrow transplantation is a potentially curative treatment for patients with malignancies of the blood, including leukemia and lymphoma. Currently, over 30,000 bone marrow transplant procedures are performed each year. Nearly half of those cancer patients who receive allogeneic bone marrow transplants develop GvHD when cells from the donor marrow react against the recipient patient's own tissue. Although drugs that suppress the immune system, such as cyclosporine, can help decrease the severity of this problem, GvHD remains the major cause of death, either directly or indirectly, in these patients. The ability to prevent or reduce the incidence of severe GvHD would allow physicians to perform bone marrow transplant procedures on a larger population of cancer patients. In collaboration with Dr. Hans Messner, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program, Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital, Dr. Spaner is now completing additional pre-clinical work that is expected to enable VAS981 to enter clinical development later this year. Vasogen is focused on advancing the treatment of cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases through the development and commercialization of patient-specific therapies (PSTs). These therapies use a patient's own blood to regulate the immune processes involved in these diseases. PSTs are designed to target fundamental disease-causing events, providing safe, effective treatment. Statements contained in this press release, including those pertaining to scientific and clinical research, commercialization plans, strategic alliances, and intellectual property protection, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements subject to a number of uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made.