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BioVex announces agreement with Merck & Co PR Newswire, London, 16/06/03. This press release is distributed on behalf of BioVex. Oxford, UK - BioVex Limited announced today that it has signed an agreement with Merck & Co Inc. BioVex will supply Merck with its proprietary NeuroVEX vectors that allow highly efficient and non-toxic gene delivery to the cells and tissues of the nervous system. Merck will evaluate the vectors at laboratory sites in both the USA and the UK. NeuroVEX can be used to establish long-term foreign gene expression in nerve cells and may be useful in the identification of new gene targets for small molecule drugs to treat diseases and disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Notes (www.biovex.com) BioVex is a private biotech company whose principal focus is on the development of products for the treatment and prevention of cancer and chronic infectious disease. The Company has two unique proprietary product platforms (OncoVEX and ImmunoVEX) and a functional genomics platform (NeuroVEX) all based on the manipulation of the herpes simplex virus (HSV). The Company is based near Oxford, UK. OncoVEX - the first in a new class of oncolytic cancer vaccines First generation products, developed by other groups, based on viruses that selectively replicate in and destroy tumour cells without affecting healthy tissue have demonstrated proof of principle in man and have been shown to be well tolerated. BioVex has constructed a series of proprietary "second generation" OncoVEX viruses which are not only several thousand fold more lytic than first generation products (as evidenced by both pre-clinical and clinical data) but are the only products in their class designed to stimulate the immune system to destroy metastatic deposits. This has been engineered, in the case of its lead product, by the insertion of the gene for the immune stimulating cytokine GM-CSF. Preliminary (unaudited) results from the administration of OncoVEX GM-CSF at single doses have shown the product to be well tolerated and substantial biological effects, including tumour destruction, have been observed. The Company is now planning a Phase II study. ImmunoVEX - a unique dendritic cell based vaccine platform Considerable evidence from advanced clinical trials has shown that antigen presentation by the immune systems key policing cells - dendritic cells - can lead to an effective immune response against disease associated antigens to which the body has become tolerant. These diseases include a broad range of cancers and infectious diseases. HSV infects and delivers antigen-encoding genes to dendritic cells at very high efficiency and has the potential to become the method of choice for antigen delivery to these cells. However, dendritic cells infected with HSV are usually inactivated by the infection process. BioVex has identified the genes responsible for this inactivation. The deletion of these genes provides a proprietary vaccine platform which combines very efficient antigen delivery to, and optimal stimulation of, this key class of antigen presenting cell. The Company's lead programme in this area, ImmunoVEX tri-melan, is in development for the treatment of malignant melanoma. Vaccines for HIV, HSV2 and HSV2/HPV are also in development. Dr Robert Coffin, Chief Scientific Officer |