Pharmacia & Upjohn and Geron Corp. Extend Partnership in Telomerase Inhibition.

Business Editors/Health and Medical Writers

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 18, 2000

Geron Corp. (Nasdaq:GERN) announced today that Pharmacia & Upjohn (NYSE:PNU) has exercised an option to extend its drug discovery collaboration with Geron.

The companies established the initial partnership in March 1997. The option extends the research and compound selection periods one additional year to March 2002. Geron will receive additional research funding from PNU as part of this extension.

"This extension was anticipated and provided for in the original agreement," said David L. Greenwood, senior vice president of corporate development and chief financial officer. "PNU's election to extend is predicated on both its assessment of how the collaboration is progressing and the increasing evidence supporting the important role for telomerase in cancer progression."

The excitement surrounding this drug discovery program is based upon the significant progress made in high throughput screening for telomerase inhibitors. Several new structural classes of inhibitors have recently progressed through confirmatory biological assays and counterscreens and are currently the basis of on-going efforts to identify an optimal telomerase inhibitor lead candidate for development.

The discovery in the early 1990s of a sensitive and reproducible assay for human telomerase activity by Geron scientists and the specific association of telomerase with a variety of human tumors (Kim et al. Science 266, 2011-2015, 1994) led to a dramatic increase in the number of publications linking telomerase to the immortality of cancer cells.

Prior to 1994, there were a total of six publications on telomerase and cancer; since that time the number has grown to several hundred per year. Numerous studies have shown that telomerase activity correlates strongly with the presence of tumor cells in tissues and that inhibitors of telomerase are capable of inducing telomere shortening and tumor cell death in tissue culture and in mouse models of human tumors.

Most recently, Herbert et al. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 96, 14276-14281, 1999) have shown telomerase to be essential for the long-term growth of human tumor cells.

The accumulating data point to the critical and universal involvement of telomerase in cancer progression, underscoring the importance of the collaboration between Geron and PNU which is dedicated to the discovery of a safe and effective inhibitor of telomerase for the treatment of human malignancies.

The strength of the Geron-PNU collaboration is underpinned by Geron's extensive international patent portfolio on telomerase-related subjects. Geron has 27 issued patents and over 150 pending patent applications covering telomerase composition of matter, methods for screening for molecules that modulate telomerase activity, telomerase modulators and the use of telomerase modulators for the treatment of disease, including cancer and degenerative diseases.

"The development of a telomerase inhibitor has been and continues to be Geron's highest priority," said Thomas Okarma, Ph.D., M.D., Geron's president and chief executive officer. "We are pleased with our internal progress and with PNU's election to extend the collaboration. The combination of our pharmaceutical collaborations, our intellectual property position in telomerase biology and our progress in compound identification positions us to identify a lead candidate for development."

Geron Corp. is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on discovering, developing and commercializing therapeutic and diagnostic products to treat cancer and other age-related chronic degenerative diseases.

Geron's technology platform includes the discovery of small molecule inhibitors of telomerase for cancer therapy; telomere and telomerase-based research and diagnostic tools; telomerase activation to extend the replicative lifespan of normal cells; and complementary stem cell, gene therapy and nuclear transfer approaches to restore the function of degenerating organs.

To receive an index and copies of recent press releases, call Geron's News On Demand toll-free fax service, 800/782-3279. Additional information about Geron Corp. can be obtained at http://www.geron.com.

Statements in this press release regarding product development and future applications of Geron's technology constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on potential factors that could affect the company's results is included in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 1999.