[0] Oncolytics Biotech Inc. Announces Initiation of REOLYSIN Clinical Study.

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2000

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. ("Oncolytics" or "the Company") (TSE:ONC)(CDNX:ONC) today announced that it has initiated its first clinical study examining the use of REOLYSIN in patients with cancer.

The Phase I study will enrol 18 patients and examine intratumoural (into the tumour) administration of REOLYSIN. Initial indications will include patients with late stage breast, head and neck, melanoma, or lung cancers. This will be a dose escalation study whose primary endpoint is safety and secondary outcome will be to measure tumour response. Enrollment in the study is to begin immediately.

"We are very excited to be initiating this first clinical study of REOLYSIN in humans," said Dr. Brad Thompson, President and CEO of Oncolytics, "The efficacy of REOLYSIN against a number of different cancers in animal models has been clearly established. This clinical study will begin to determine if these results can be duplicated in humans. All of the work performed by the Company and our collaborators at the University of Calgary has been aimed at testing the reovirus in people."

Oncolytics is a biotechnology company whose focus is the development of the reovirus known as REOLYSIN as a potential cancer therapeutic. The human reovirus infects and kills cancer cells with an activated Ras pathway. Ras is an important component of a pathway controlling normal growth and differentiation of a cell and when activated, may account for a large proportion of all human tumours. Researchers believe that targeting this pathway could have broad potential in the treatment of many cancers. Oncolytics researchers demonstrated that REOLYSIN was selectively able to kill cancer cells with this particular activation and successfully demonstrated that the virus could kill human cancer cells in vitro derived from breast, prostate, pancreatic, and brain tumours, as well as being able to treat tumours successfully in a number of animal models. Oncolytics initiated a Phase I clinical trial on REOLYSIN in June of 2000.

This release contains certain forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, delays, uncertainties and other factors not under the Company's control which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performance or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements.