SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Scios Inc. (Nasdaq: SCIO)
announced today presentations that will be made about its investigational new
drug, Natrecor(R) (nesiritide) for acute congestive heart failure at the
50th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology in
Orlando, Florida.
Scios is providing unrestricted support for a special educational
symposium "B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) In CHF: From Diagnostics to
Therapy" to be chaired by James B. Young, M.D., Head, Section of Heart Failure
and Cardiac Transplant Medicine and Medical Director of the Kaufman Center for
Heart Failure at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
The symposium will be held on Saturday, March 17, 2001 from
1:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST in the Wedgewood Ballroom at the Renaissance Orlando
Resort at SeaWorld. Other leading congestive heart failure experts
participating in the CME-accredited symposium are Alan S. Maisel, M.D.,
Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Diego and Director, CCU
and Heart Failure Research, San Diego VA Health Care Systems and Lynne Warner
Stevenson, M.D., Director, Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure Program,
Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. The symposium will address topics
including recent research (including the ESCAPE and VMAC trials) and new
treatment options. Dr. Young, who chaired the VMAC (Vasodilation in the
Management of Acute Congestive Heart Failure) trial, will discuss the results
and clinical relevance of this important study in acute congestive heart
failure.
A live teleconference of the event is available by calling 800-482-2225.
Ask the operator for the program title: B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) in
CHF: From Diagnosis to Therapy. Should you miss the live symposium, a
recorded version will be available for one week by calling 800-625-5288. The
confirmation code for the replay is 967808.
The company also announced that a poster entitled "Effect of Nesiritide on
Endothelin-1 Levels in Patients with Decompensated Congestive Heart Failure"
will be presented at ACC on Sunday, March 18 at 12:00 p.m. EST at the Orange
County Convention Center (Hall A-4, Poster Board 71, Session 1046). The study
compares Natrecor to dobutamine, a standard CHF therapy, in its ability to
regulate endothelin-1 (ET-1), a hormone implicated in worsening heart failure.
Study authors Doron Aronson, M.D., and Andrew J. Burger, M.D., Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, concluded that "in patients
with decompensated CHF, acute BNP (i.e., nesiritide) infusion induces a rapid
reduction in plasma ET-1. This effect may account, in part, for the
beneficial hemodynamic and clinical effects of nesiritide in the setting of
heart failure."
"The ability of BNP to reduce endothelin in sick patients is another
clinical confirmation of the known physiology of BNP," said Darlene P. Horton,
M.D., vice president of medical affairs at Scios. "The upcoming presentation
and symposium in Orlando should underscore Natrecor's unique role in CHF and
the fact that it could be the first new therapeutic for this indication in
over ten years."
Natrecor
Natrecor is a recombinant form of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a
naturally occurring hormone in the body that aids healthy functioning of the
heart. BNP is secreted by the ventricles of the heart as one of the body's
natural responses to heart failure. When the heart is unable to pump blood
efficiently, BNP is produced to ease its workload. BNP appears to relax blood
vessels (vasodilation), increase the excretion of sodium (natriuresis) and
fluid (diuresis), and decrease neurohormones that lead to vessel constriction,
fluid retention and elevated blood pressure.
Scios Inc.
Scios is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for heart
failure and rheumatoid arthritis. The company's disease-based technology
platform integrates expertise in protein biology with combinatorial and
medicinal chemistry to identify novel targets and rationally design large and
small-molecule compounds to treat cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases,
two of the world's leading unmet medical needs. Additional information on
Scios is available at its web site located at http://www.sciosinc.com and in the
company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The statements in this press release that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These
include uncertainties associated with anticipating the response of the FDA to
the results of the VMAC trial, the timing of regulatory approval of Natrecor,
and acceptance by the medical community of Natrecor as a new therapy for acute
decompensated CHF, as well as other risks detailed from time to time in the
reports filed by Scios with the SEC, including the company's annual report on
form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999 and subsequent reports on form
10-Q.
SOURCE Scios, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.sciosinc.com
CONTACT:
Wendy Carhart of Scios Inc., 408-616-8325; or
Jim Weiss of WeissComm, 415-203-0328; or Michelle Choi of Edelman
Worldwide, 212-704 4580, both for Scios Inc.
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