Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Awarded SBIR Grant from National Cancer Institute to Develop Diagnostic Test for Pancreatic Cancer

ROCKVILLE, Md., October 23/PRNewswire/ -- Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will provide funding towards the development of a diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer based on the Company's HAAH Oncology Program, which targets the enzyme Human Aspartyl Asparaginyl Beta-Hydroxylase or HAAH as both a therapeutic target and as a cancer marker.

"We are pleased to receive a third SBIR award from the National Institutes of Health, as it points to the importance of our technologies being developed," stated Hossein A. Ghanbari, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Company. "We are particularly excited about the development of tests based on HAAH, which have the potential to be used in the diagnosis and monitoring of solid tumors both during and subsequent to treatment and which may assist the clinician in treatment selection."

The grant, entitled, "Development of Immunodiagnostics for Pancreatic Carcinoma," has several goals. These include the validation of HAAH as a soluble marker for pancreatic cancer, the development of sensitive and specific assays for HAAH in body fluid samples, and conducting a retrospective study of HAAH in pancreatic cancer patients. The retrospective study will measure HAAH levels in patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and will correlate these levels to tumor stage and patient outcome.

Future work will include large-scale clinical studies to define the correlation between HAAH levels in the blood and pancreatic juice for the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of pancreatic cancer. This work may lead to the establishment of HAAH-specific immunoassays to be used in clinical diagnostic labs for multiple cancers.

Current methods for the diagnosis and management of cancer rely heavily on imaging techniques, such as X-ray, CT scanning, and MRI as well as tissue biopsy and histopathologic findings. Current imaging procedures are costly and time consuming while tissue biopsy is quite invasive. Much effort has been put forth to identify specific molecular tumor markers that could be easily detected in bodily fluid samples and to develop sensitive assays to detect them. Unfortunately, to date, most tumor markers that have been identified have lacked in the requisite specificity and sensitivity for diagnosis and are of limited value in the determination of disease prognosis and as a method for continued monitoring of patients subsequent to treatment.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 30,000 Americans die each year from pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States for men and women, and has the highest mortality rate. The main reason for the poor prognosis of cancer of the pancreas is that very few of these cancers are found early. Because the pancreas is located deep inside the body, early tumors can't be seen or felt by healthcare providers during routine physical exams, and most patients have no symptoms until the cancer has reached a large size or spread to other organs.

Background on HAAH Oncology Program

HAAH over-expression has been detected in primary tumor tissue of all eighteen tumor types tested to date, including cancers of the pancreas, breast, ovary, liver, colon, prostate, lung, brain, and bile duct. HAAH over- expression has been detected in 99% of tumor specimens (greater than 900) tested to date and has not been detected in normal or adjacent non-affected tissue. Recent findings in preclinical studies have indicated that over- expression of HAAH is sufficient to induce cellular transformation, to increase cell motility and invasiveness, and to establish tumor formation in animals.

Even partial inhibition of HAAH expression appears to have a beneficial effect on tumor cells, causing them to revert to a more normal phenotype as measured by the inhibition of growth, motility, and invasiveness. HAAH is over-expressed on the surface of cancer cells, potentially facilitating detection, drug delivery, and enzyme inhibition.

Panacea signed a Collaboration and License Agreement with MedImmune, Inc. in early 2002 to discover, develop, and commercialize therapeutic agents for the prevention or treatment of human disease based on Panacea's HAAH technology or its pathways. Panacea has retained all rights to the development of diagnostic products based on HAAH.

About Panacea Pharmaceuticals

Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on utilizing functional genomics and proteomics to develop therapeutics and diagnostics for diseases with substantial unmet clinical need. The Company's product development focus is on novel proteins and biochemical pathways related to cellular regulation and cell cycle abnormalities in oncology as well as neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

More information is available at http://www.PanaceaPharma.com.

Except for historical information presented in this press release, matters discussed herein may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management only as of the date of this release and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, uncertainties related to our access to capital, the progress, costs, and results of any clinical trials undertaken by us, progress of our research and development projects, and uncertainties related to whether our product candidates would ultimately achieve commercial success. We do not undertake any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise unless required by law.