Calydon announces issuance of three patents for technologies that destroy cancer tumors, including prostate cancer.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Calydon, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA; 408-734-0733) three patents that significantly expand the company's intellectual property in the area of engineering tumor-specific viruses to replicate in and kill prostate cancer cells.

Issued to Calydon are United States Patent 6,057,299, United States Patent 6,051,417 and United States Patent 6,136,792 that cover two human prostate-specific transcriptional regulatory sequences: a human prostate-specific antigen enhancer; and a human glandular kallikrein enhancer.

Applications include the methods for treating prostate cancer using replication competent adenovirus-based therapy and prostate cancer high-throughput drug screening. The issuance of these patents join Calydon's collection of patents covering viral therapeutics that target and treat prostate and other cancers which includes United States Patent 5,698,443 and United States Patent 5,871,726 that cover methods for constructing a virus that incorporates the prostate-specific antigen enhancer gene for use in specifically targeting and killing prostate cancer cells; United States Patent 5,830,686 and United States Patent 5,648,478 that claim a human prostate tissue-specific enhancer gene and methods that utilize the prostate-specific antigen enhancer gene for treating prostate disease; and United States Patent 5,783,435 that claims methods and compositions for screening therapeutic agents for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Calydon is engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of viral-based drug therapies that replicate in and kill cancer cells with far greater specificity than the standard cancer treatments of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy, thereby avoiding the complications associated with those treatments. Calydon is currently focused on creating a suite of cancer therapeutics to treat the full spectrum of prostate cancer with curative intent. The company has completed a Phase I/II clinical trial with CV706 (previously known as CN706), a drug designed to treat early-stage prostate cancer, and is currently conducting a Phase I/II clinical trial with CV787 for metastatic prostate cancer. Evidence from the CV706 trial showed safety, efficacy, and most importantly, that Calydon's underlying ARCA platform technology works in humans. This paves the way for the clinical development of other ARCA viruses to address many different types of cancer.