Magainin Outlines Development Status of Angiogenesis Program
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Magainin Pharmaceuticals
Inc. today outlined the development status of squalamine, its
angiogenesis inhibitor for the treatment of patients with solid tumors.
Squalamine is being evaluated in human Phase I clinical testing at two
sites, the Cancer Therapy and Research Center, San
Antonio, Texas under the direction of Dr. Gail Eckhardt and the Lombardi
Cancer Center, Georgetown University under the
direction of Dr. Michael Hawkins. The objective of the Phase I clinical
trials is to assess the safety and pharmacokinetics of
intravenously administered squalamine in cancer patients. This
information will be used to design subsequent efficacy trials in
individuals with advanced stage malignancies using squalamine alone and
in combination with commonly administered
chemotherapeutic agents.
Magainin has reported extensive preclinical data on squalamine,
including collaborative work conducted by Dr. Joan Schiller,
University of Wisconsin Cancer Center; work conducted by Dr. Henry Brem
at The Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine; work conducted by Dr. Daniel Von Hoff at the Institute for
Drug Development; and work conducted by Dr.
Beverly Teicher formerly of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. These
studies have shown squalamine to be efficacious in the
inhibition of various cancers in animals, including lung, breast, brain
and melanoma.
``The recent publicity regarding the role of angiogenesis in the
treatment of cancer has intensified interest in our squalamine
program,'' said Jay Moorin, Chairman, President and Chief Executive
Officer of Magainin. ``The success of squalamine in
preclinical testing, both in our hands and in the hands of a number of
cancer experts, has led us to the commencement of
human clinical studies. We are pleased with the focus on the field of
angiogenesis, an approach which has been the principal
focus of our cancer program.''
Squalamine was discovered in 1992 in the body tissues of the dogfish
shark by a team led by Michael Zasloff, M.D., Ph.D.,
Executive Vice President of Magainin. It is the first of a novel class
of naturally occurring pharmacologically active small
molecules (the ``aminosterols'') under development at Magainin as human
therapeutics. Squalamine has been shown in
preclinical studies to be a new type of inhibitor of angiogenesis.
Angiogenesis is the process of budding and growth of new
blood vessels from existing blood vessels under the stimulus of a
variety of growth factors. Squalamine inhibits the growth of
tumor-induced new blood vessels in animal systems and also reduces the
spread of tumor metastases.
Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in
the development of medicines for serious diseases.
The Company's development efforts are focused on anti-infectives,
oncology, and pulmonary and allergic disorders.
Mel
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
majordomo@lists.meds.com
with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
