Pin1 Enzyme Could Spur Development of Personalized Cancer Medicines, According to Pintex Pharmaceuticals; Highly Targeted Drugs Would Improve Treatment and Reduce Costs.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2004

Pintex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today said its pioneering work on the Pin1 enzyme could lead to the development of a number of diagnostics and therapies that could provide more precise treatment of breast, prostate, cervical, colon, and other human cancers.

"Since deregulation of the Pin1 enzyme is prevalent in human cancers and has been shown to be an excellent prognostic marker in prostate cancer, we believe it will play an important role in the development of highly focused diagnostic therapies that will help physicians identify and treat patients with specific cancers," said Dr. Janusz M. Sowadski, founder and president of Pintex.

More precise diagnosis and treatment of cancers -- which improves the ability to know in advance who will benefit from a drug and who will only experience side effects with no therapeutic benefit -- forms the basis of the emerging field of personalized medicine, and represents a promising new market for drug developers.

Potential applications of highly focused diagnostics utilizing the Pin1 enzyme is significant, according to Pintex. Late last year, a senior geneticist at a major drug firm estimated that 90 percent of prescription drugs work for only 30 to 50 percent of the patients who take them.

Pintex Research Confirms Importance of Pin1 Enzyme

According to Pintex, Pin1 deregulation has been found in 38 out of 60 types of human cancer. In experiments done in collaboration with the University of Basel's pathology department, Pintex examined more than 2,000 clinical tumor samples from 60 different tumor indications for Pin1 expression levels. Pintex found that the majority of human tumors mis-express Pin1 when compared to normal tissues. Among these were major tumors of the breast, lung, and prostate.

In the fourth quarter of 2003, initial testing encompassing over 5,000 patients of specific breast, colon, and lung tumor types using the next generation of Pintex's targeted highly specific antibodies confirmed the co-relationship of Pin1 with other well-known cancer markers, the company said.

"The development of finely tuned diagnostics and targeted treatments promise to yield significant benefits," Dr. Sowadski said. "Patients will receive more appropriate treatments earlier, which should increase long-term survival. Drug developers will likely be able to lower their development costs. And health insurance companies will be able to provide better patient care at lower cost."

In addition, current, extensive animal studies, involving mice at the Arizona Cancer Center, are underway on Pintex's novel family of small-molecule Pin1 inhibitors.

Reporting on its research in a recent issue of the American Journal of Pathology, Dr. Sowadski and other researchers noted, "Together with the previous finding that Pin1 plays a pivotal role in breast cancer and that Pin1 deregulation is an independent marker for predicting the probability of recurrence in prostate cancer, (research) results suggest that Pin1 may play a critical role in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of many human cancers."

Also contributing to the article were Drs. Da-Gong Wang, Amy Kimzey, and Lere Bao, also of Pintex; Dr. Kun Ping Lu of Harvard Medical School, a co-discoverer of the Pin1 enzyme and chairman of the Pintex scientific advisory board; and Dr. Guido Sauter, of the Institute of Pathology at the University of Basel.

Published by the American Society for Investigative Pathology, the American Journal of Pathology is a leading global forum for reporting quality original research on cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease.

Pintex currently has rights in more than 75 patent applications and/or issued patents relating to the Pin1 enzyme.

To date, the patent rights of the company also include issued patents throughout the world providing broad patent protection for antibodies, compositions of matter, including Pin1 DNA, Pin1 polypeptides, peptide and peptide mimetic inhibitors of Pin1, as well as methods for detecting the deregulation of Pin1 in various disease states and methods for inhibiting the activity of the Pin1 enzyme using peptides, peptide mimetics, and small molecules.

About Pintex Pharmaceuticals

Founded in 1999, Pintex (www.pintexpharm.com) is a private pharmaceuticals company engaged in the discovery and development of structure-based cancer therapeutics that are based on its exclusive rights to technology which originated at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Harvard University. Dr. Walter Gilbert, a 1980 Nobel Laureate in chemistry and co-founder of Pintex, is chairman of its board of directors. Investors include BioVentures Investors, Canaan Partners, POD Holding, and Zero Stage Capital.