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Biotech / Medical : GlycoGenesys GLGS (formerly SafeScience SAFS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (40)	6/15/2005 2:25:02 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 56

[GCS-100 mechanism of apoptotic action, the sequel] >>BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2005-- New Discovery Revealed At The 9th International Conference On Malignant Lymphoma in Lugano, Switzerland GlycoGenesys, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLGS - News), a biotechnology company focused on carbohydrate-based drug development, today announced that Dr. Finbarr Cotter, Professor, Barts and The London Queen Mary's School of Medicine UK, revealed how GCS-100 targets cells from CLL patients and a variety of lymphoma cell lines to induce cell death. These new findings were presented recently at the prestigious 9th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma. The presentation and a corresponding published abstract from the conference were entitled "GCS-100 A Novel Galectin-3 Antagonist and Caspace-9 Activating Therapy For Indolent B-Cell Malignancies." To provide a context to understand the potential commercial implications of Dr. Cotter's research, we believe it is important to know that GlycoGenesys' cancer drug candidate GCS-100 has been shown to bind to Galectin-3. Also, earlier literature demonstrates that Galectin-3 and Bcl-2 are over-expressed in a variety of lymphomas and solid tumor cancers. Moreover, GCS-100 is the first Galectin-3 inhibitor now in clinical trials for the treatment of both bloodborne and solid tumor cancers. With this background, a summary of the new scientific findings includes: Dr. Cotter demonstrated for the first time that Galectin-3 and Bcl-2 are co- located in malignant cell lines; That GCS-100 blocks Galectin-3's ability to co-locate with Bcl-2 in these malignant cell lines causing targeted cell death; And, this programmed cell death occurs through the known caspase-9 mediated cell death pathway; Moreover, GCS-100 induced significant programmed cell death in both malignant cell lines and primary patient CLL cells with minimal effect against normal B-cells and stem cells; And, Dr. Cotter's new data strongly supports previously published research that Galectin-3 is a valid therapeutic target to treat cancer. Dr. Cotter stated, "These findings provide a real insight into an exciting new agent for cancer therapy as well as a greater understanding of newly emerging cancer therapy targets, namely the galectins. I look forward to being involved as an advisor in the upcoming CLL trial and reporting additional research on GCS-100 at future meetings and in publications." Bradley J Carver, the Company's CEO and President stated, "Dr. Cotter's findings tell us how GCS-100 targets and destroys malignant lymphoma and CLL cells with minimal effect against normal B-cells and stem cells. This information is very exciting as it supports our choice of CLL as the indication of our next clinical trial and will be helpful in our partnering discussions for GCS-100." About the Presentation Dr. Cotter's presentation focused on new scientific discoveries about lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells and their potential therapeutic relevance to GlycoGenesys' cancer drug candidate GCS-100. In newly presented data, Dr. Cotter showed for the first time that Galectin-3 and Bcl-2 are co- located in malignant lymphoma cell lines. Further and importantly, his data demonstrated in vitro that GCS-100 induced targeted cancer cell death by blocking Galectin-3's ability to co-locate with Bcl-2 in these cell lines. Moreover, the data illustrated that GCS-100 induced cancer cell death in these patient cells and cell lines through caspase-9, a well known cancer cell death pathway. Bcl-2 and Galectin-3 are known to protect cancer cells from dying. Published literature suggests that over expression of these survival proteins is often associated with chemotherapy resistance and/or poorer clinical outcomes for cancer patients. This new data on GCS-100 provides significantly more detail of its mechanism of action in selectively targeting and inducing cell death in lymphoma cells and CLL. Dr. Cotter underscored his previously reported data illustrating GCS-100's ability to enhance the effect of existing chemotherapeutic agents, including etoposide. Another favorable attribute of GCS-100 discussed by Dr. Cotter is its lack of myelosuppression, a negative side effect of some widely used cancer treatments. Myelosuppression is a condition in which bone marrow activity is decreased resulting in fewer red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. About The Conference Abstract: Annals of Oncology, Official Journal of The European Society for medical Oncology. Volume 16, 2005 Supplement 5. Abstract # 111, GCS-100 A Novel Galectin-3 Antagonist and Caspace-9 Activating Therapy For Indolent B-Cell Malignancies<< The stock has sunk so low that this is good for a 20% bounce. Imagine what kind of bounce we'd see on CLINICAL results. snip Cheers, Tuck