Cingles Info

1:00PM 2002.09.05 (GMT+1)
GenOdyssee Announces Positive Results of Proprietary Interferon-alpha
Variants for the Treatment of Hepatitis C and Cancer
- In Preclinical Disease Models Variants Demonstrate Increased Efficacy
Compared to Those Currently Available on the Market -
Paris, France, September 5, 2002 - GenOdyssee S.A., a
biotherapeutics company specializing in discovering and developing drugs
from functional genomics, today announced preclinical results for its
proprietary interferon (IFN) alpha variants for the treatment of hepatitis C
(HCV) and cancer. In the studies conducted by independent French
laboratories, GenOdyssee's variants demonstrated up to one hundred times
greater efficacy compared to IFN alpha molecules currently on the market.
Professor Michael TOVEY, Director of the Viral Oncology Laboratory at
CNRS Research Institute (French National Center for Scientific Research)
commented, "GenOdyssee's interferons display excellent toxicity profiles and
are much more specific and active than interferons 2a and 2b that are
currently on the market for HCV and cancer. Such a significant improvement
could herald a major advancement in patient treatment for both conditions.
Undoubtedly, GenOdyssee's unique approach has significantly contributed to
our understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind interferon activity,
which are currently not well documented."
The studies compared GenOdyssee's nine IFN alpha variants to the
currently marketed IFN alpha 2a and 2b variants in viral infectious disease
models for HCV and immunotherapy models for cancer. Certain IFN alpha
variants demonstrated up to one hundred times greater antiviral,
immunomodulatory and antiproliferative activities than IFN alpha 2a and 2b.
Other variants exhibited differential activities, for example, having
greater antiproliferative but reduced antiviral and immunomodulatory
properties. Initial in vivo toxicology studies reveal few side effects and
suggest the company's IFN alpha variants are better tolerated than those
currently on the market. Hence, these variants could provide a more
specific and efficient therapeutic, with reduced adverse side effects,
significantly increasing treatment efficacy. The company believes that the
most potent IFN immunostimulating and antiproliferative variants will enable
the development of novel immunotherapy treatments for common forms of
cancer, including lung, breast and prostate.
"Genodyssee's variants could act as a stand-alone cancer therapy or
act as an adjunct to therapeutic vaccines, providing greater efficacy than
currently available treatments; they make promising candidates for the
treatment of cancer and HCV," commented Professor Hervé FRIDMAN, from the
Paris Pierre & Marie Curie Medical School and Director of INSERM (French
institute for Health and Medical research) unit 255. Professor Patrick
MAUREL, director of INSERM unit 128, who coordinated the in-vitro
preclinical studies on hepatocyte culture, confirmed that "GenOdyssee's
variants, showing unprecedented activity on human hepatocyte HCV infection,
make very promising candidates to significantly improve HCV treatment."
"With these promising results in hand, GenOdyssee now has a proof of
concept for our innovative approach to drug discovery and development. By
combining our expertise in genetic variability with our understanding of
proteins, we hope to be able to select naturally occurring variants of
existing therapeutic proteins which demonstrate a higher therapeutic index
and fewer side effects," said Dr Jean-Louis Escary, GenOdyssee's Founder,
President & Chief Executive Officer. "The exciting results from the studies
of our IFN alpha variants should enable GenOdyssee to start clinical
development of the most promising variants in both hepatitis C and cancer in
2003. The HCV market is currently valued at more than $2 billion, with ten
percent annual growth, and the cancer therapeutic vaccines and direct
immunotherapy markets are estimated at several hundred million US dollars.
Hence, given the poor efficacy and high toxicity of current treatments, our
proprietary IFN alpha variants represent exceptional commercial
opportunities."
About GenOdyssee S.A.
GenOdyssee S.A. is a French biotherapeutics company founded in October
1999. The company pursues a dual business model: if offers genetic analysis
services through its division GenOdyssee Genetics and aims to develop its
own therapeutics through its division GenOdyssee Pharmaceuticals. GenOdyssee
Genetics has developed a fully integrated high throughput (HT) screening
platform that provides a unique set of post-genomic services including
genetic polymorphism HT detection and identification, HT genotyping,
bioinformatics and functional proteomics. Through its division GenOdyssee
Pharmaceuticals, the company has developed a unique approach to human
genetic variability and applied it to more than 100 genes coding for
therapeutic proteins, to their receptors and to the tyrosine kinases
involved in the corresponding biological pathways.
This program has reaped successful results. As a result of its
original product R&D approach, the company started its second year of
existence with a portfolio of 84 lead candidates. The company has an ongoing
functional proteomics program to study the biological effects of these
molecules, and 32 of them have already shown therapeutic potential. In
2001, GenOdyssee filed 30 patent applications and launched preclinical
studies with its first ten lead candidates.
Contact
Patrick Molinoz
Public Relations Director
GenOdyssee S.A.
Parc d'Affaires Technopolis -
3, avenue du Canada BP 810 Les Ulis
91974 Courtaboeuf Cedex
France
Tel : +33 1 69 29 80 55
Fax : +33 1 69 29 80 79
E-mail: molinoz@...
Web : www.genodyssee.com
Mary Claire Duch
Account Supervisor
Noonan Russo Presence Euro RSCG
Tel: +1 212 845 4278
Fax: +1 212 696 9180
Email: m.duch@...
Web: www.nrp-euro.com
Douglas Pretsell, Ph.D.
Senior Account Executive
Noonan Russo Presence Euro RSCG
Tel: + 44 20 7726 4452
Fax: + 44 20 7726 4453
Email: d.pretsell@...
Web: www.nrp-euro.com
Notes for Editors
Infectious-disease models used in the studies
Viral infectious-disease models for HCV included a novel in vitro
HCV-infected primary human hepatocyte culture, mice infected with
encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV), in vitro cell cultures infected with
vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV).
Hepatitis C
180 million people worldwide are infected with Hepatitis C. This
virus is the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide and the tenth leading
cause of death among adults in the United States, accounting for
approximately 25,000 deaths annually. Hepatitis C is currently treated with
a combination therapy of interferon (IFN and Peg IFN a-2a et a-2b) and
Ribavirin. These treatments are not sufficiently effective; they have a
high level of toxicity (causing severe side effects such as flu-like
symptoms, loss of weight, hair loss, fatigue, neuropsychiatric effects,
hemolytic anemia) and a response rate of less than 50%.
Immunotherapy for cancers
Immunomodulatory and antiproliferative cancer models included ex-vivo
human dendritic cell maturation, mice grafted with IFN resistant
erythroleukemia and in vitro Daudi cell cultures. Certain cancers are
sensitive to specific immunotherapy, others respond to monoclonal antibody
therapy (anti CD 20 in lymphoma, anti ERB2 in breast cancer), and some to
non-specific immunotherapy (IL2 or GM-CSF as immunostimulators or
adjuvants). IFN alpha has proven to be a clinically effective drug in
cancer for more than 16 years.
Attachments:
Interferon-alpha variant results
Please click on the link to view the PDF version of the press release.
If you have any questions please contact Noonan Russo Presence on +44 (0)20
7726 4452