Introgen Therapeutics Inc announced the publication of preclinical data which showed that its non-viral delivery system may be a more effective method of delivering therapeutic genes to tumors than other non-viral delivery systems. These data were published in the February 2003 issue of the journal Molecular Therapy. Introgen holds a license to pharmaceutical applications of the non-viral delivery system from the National Institutes of Health.

"While current treatments for metastatic tumors have had limited successes, due to toxicity issues, this novel delivery system results in targeting of gene therapeutics to cancer cells, and may have better efficacy and lower toxicity than other non-viral formulations tested to date," said Jack A. Roth, chair of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at M. D. Anderson, and author on the publication. "This is a significant advance in the field of non-viral gene therapy which may have clinical applications in the near future."

The in vivo study demonstrated tumor cell targeting using Introgen's non-viral formulation and was conducted by Dr. Rajagopal Ramesh, assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The tumor targeting appeared to be due to preferential uptake by tumor cells of the non-viral gene formulations. When the non-viral formulation was administered to cells in culture, tumor cells showed much greater uptake and gene expression than normal cells. When injected intravenously into mice, a similar effect was observed, with both uptake and gene expression higher in tumors than surrounding normal tissues. These same results were observed in culture using human tumor samples from patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

"Introgen and its academic collaborators continue to advance the science of using genes as therapeutic agents," said David G. Nance, Introgen's president and CEO. "These data and other research progress in Introgen's non- viral delivery program are very encouraging. We look forward to the clinical testing of this promising system," he continued.