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

To: Mike McFarland who wrote (311)	4/28/1999 11:22:00 AM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 810

Onyx Awarded European Patent for Viral Cancer Therapy RICHMOND, Calif., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONXX - news) today announced that the European Patent Office has granted the company European Patent No. 94910177.8 covering methods for treating cancer using replicating viral-based therapy. The patent specifically covers the use of modified adenoviruses, which lack viral proteins that bind to the tumor suppressor protein p53, to treat cancer patients whose tumors lack p53 function. Frank McCormick, Ph.D., director of the cancer center at the University of California San Francisco, is the sole inventor listed on the patent. Dr. McCormick founded Onyx in 1992 and currently serves on the company's scientific advisory board. ''We have filed patent applications throughout the world for protection of our unique therapeutic virus approach,'' said Greg Giotta, vice president and chief legal counsel at Onyx. ''We were granted a U.S. patent for this technology in October 1997. The European patent further solidifies our leadership position, which will continue to expand as additional patents issue worldwide.'' The role of the p53 tumor suppressor gene is to prevent replication of abnormal DNA during the process of cell division. In normal cells, p53 detects errors in DNA and either halts the cycle of cell division until the errors are corrected, or forces the cell to undergo apoptosis or ''cell suicide.'' If p53 has mutated and become inactive, the cell's DNA continues to replicate even if it contains many errors. As a result abnormal cells can survive and multiply. Mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene are the most common genetic abnormalities found in human cancers, appearing in more than half of all cancers. One of the functions of this gene is to shut down the cell's reproductive machinery upon viral invasion. Viruses, however, can overcome this defense by producing special viral proteins that disable this regulating gene. The viruses developed by Onyx are genetically modified such that they do not produce the proteins responsible for inactivating p53. As a result, these modified viruses do not replicate effectively in normal cells, but do replicate in and kill p53-deficient tumor cells. chris