U.S. Issuance of Lead Patent Applicable to Collaboration
WALTHAM, Mass., June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- AltaRex Corp.
(TSE: AXO, OTC: ALXFF) announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) establishing a joint collaboration with Epigen Inc.
(Rochester, NY) for the purposes of the research and development of antibody
based treatments for a potential twelve cancers associated with the human
carcinoma antigen (HCA). HCA is Epigen's proprietary cancer specific antigen
that appears in circulation in early stage disease and is associated with the
vast majority of epithelial cancers including prostate, ovarian, breast and
non-small cell lung cancers. The companies expect to enter into a definitive
agreement within 60 days.
Epigen brings to the collaboration the antigen HCA and a series of foreign
monoclonal antibodies specific to HCA. AltaRex brings to the venture its
proprietary dendritic cell assay that will be utilized to quickly evaluate
which, if any, of Epigen's foreign antibodies are capable of inducing
beneficial immune responses, particularly T cell responses, against the target
antigen HCA. This assay has been validated by successful results reported for
the Company's OvaRex(R), BrevaRex(R) and ProstaRex(TM) antibodies.
Additionally, the Company is contributing a license to its key intellectual
property (its "multi-epitopic" patent) related to its ability to elicit immune
system responses against a targeted antigen in circulation. Both companies
believe that a foreign antibody against HCA should elicit a "multi-epitopic"
response and "alter immunity" (break tolerance) to this presumably self-
antigen. Coincidentally, the Company was issued yesterday a U.S. patent for
this unique "multi-epitopic" method of treatment. Although the patent applies
to OvaRex(R) MAb specifically, the Company believes that all five antibodies
in its cancer product portfolio, as well as the new Epigen antibody, will be
operative under the same mechanism.
It is the potential breadth of application of AltaRex's multi-epitopic
antigen-targeted approach that is of interest to Epigen in further developing
anti-HCA antibodies. The fact that HCA is expressed early, is cancer specific
(only expressed in patients with cancer), is expressed on the vast majority of
carcinomas and is detectable in the blood via a simple diagnostic assay (in
development by Epigen in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson) makes it a very
compelling target for AltaRex's proprietary antigen-targeted antibody
approach.
"The difficulty with many tumor associated antigens is that specificity is
often inadequate early in the course of disease," commented Christopher F.
Nicodemus, Senior Vice President, Clinical Research and Development for
AltaRex. "What makes HCA so exciting to AltaRex is that it appears to be
uniquely associated with malignant forms of multiple tumor types and it is
detectable with disease specificity early in the course of disease."
"This joint venture represents a progressive coming together of two very
innovative companies with related technologies that, when combined, can
accelerate the development of HCA-specific cancer treatments, beyond what
either Company could efficiently accomplish on its own," added Donald Fresne,
Chairman, President and CEO of Epigen, Inc.
"Companies like Epigen, with novel and exciting antigen targets are
recognizing the value of AltaRex's approach to quickly assess their
antigen/antibody combinations for their therapeutic potential and to
subsequently bring those products to the clinic, with a much abbreviated
development program" stated AltaRex President and CEO Richard Bagley.
"AltaRex is enthusiastic about the potential that Epigen's HCA presents as a
novel cancer specific antigen target."
About Epigen
Epigen, Inc. is a privately held biopharmaceutical company, engaged in the
development of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. With its diagnostic,
monitoring, and therapeutic products, the Company aims to treat cancers, and
specifically epithelial carcinomas, in a more effective, less expensive, and
less invasive manner than currently available products. Epigen's development
program utilizes its proprietary Human Carcinoma Antigen (HCA), a cancer
specific antigen that appears on the surface of epithelial carcinomas.
Epigen's proprietary technology originated with researchers at the Harvard
Medical School and was subsequently developed at Boston Biomedical Research
Institute.
About AltaRex
AltaRex Corp. is focused on the research, development and
commercialization of antigen-targeted antibody-based cancer therapies,
utilizing monoclonal antibodies as immunotherapeutic agents for the treatment
of certain late-stage cancers. OvaRex(R) MAb targets the tumor associated
antigen CA 125 and is in the final stages of clinical evaluation for ovarian
cancer with commercialization expected in the United States, assuming timely
regulatory approval under accelerated provisions, in 2002. Clinical data
reported to date evidence a prolongation in time to relapse and/or survival in
the treatment of ovarian cancer, without the toxicities seen with
chemotherapy. BrevaRex(R) MAb targets the tumor associated antigen MUC1 and
has successfully completed a phase I safety and immunology study.
The Company plans to initiate a phase I/II clinical study of BrevaRex(R) MAb
for the treatment of multiple myeloma this year. ProstaRex(TM) MAb targets
the tumor associated antigen PSA and has successfully demonstrated robust
T and B cell immune responses in preclinical study.
Additional information about AltaRex research and development, news and
events can be found on its web site at http://www.altarex.com . AltaRex Corp. is
traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AXO, and
over-the-counter in the United States under the symbol ALXFF. Clinical
information can be found at http://www.centerwatch.com . Additional information
about ovarian cancer can be found at http://www.nci.nih.gov , http://www.ovarian.org ,
http://www.ovariancancer.org and at http://www.ovariancanada.org . Additional information
about multiple myeloma can be found at http://www.multiplemyeloma.org .
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from
the statements made. For this purpose, any statements that are contained
herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-
looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "believes,"
"anticipates," "plans," "intends," "expects" and similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties
include, but are not limited to the risk that a definitive agreement is not
entered into with Epigen, our dependence on corporate alliances such as the
alliance with Epigen referred to above, our need for capital and the risk that
the Company can not raise funds on a timely basis or on satisfactory terms or
at all, changing market conditions, completion of clinical trials, patient
enrollment rates, uncertainty of pre-clinical, retrospective and early
clinical trial results which may not be indicative of results that will be
obtained in ongoing or future clinical trials, new corporate alliances, the
establishment of manufacturing processes and the scale up of cell culture
material, the timely development, regulatory approval and market acceptance of
the Company's products, uncertainty as to whether patents will issue from
pending patent applications and, if issued, as to whether such patents will be
sufficiently broad to protect the Company's technology, and other risks
detailed from time-to-time in the Company's filings with the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities authorities.
The Toronto Stock Exchange has not approved or disapproved of the
information contained herein.
SOURCE AltaRex Corp.
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Related links:
http://www.altarex.com
http://www.centerwatch.com http://www.nci.nih.gov
http://www.ovarian.org http://www.ovariancancer.org
http://www.ovariancanada.org
http://www.multiplemyeloma.org
Photo Notes:
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Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/128163.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 128163
CONTACT:
Sondra Henrichon, Director, Investor
Relations and Corporate Communications of AltaRex, 781-672-0138,
ext. 1510, or shenrichon@altarex.com; or Wayne Hendry, Investor
Relations of The Equicom Group, 416-815-0700, ext. 238, or
whendry@equicomgroup.com, for AltaRex
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