Replicon Technologies Inc. Secures Financing.Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers BIOWIRE2K DANVILLE, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--April 3, 2002 Replicon rep·li·con n. A genetic element that undergoes replication as an autonomous unit. Technologies Inc. (RTI RTI - Return from interrupt ) today announced that the company has received funding from Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. The company previously announced financing from Tullis-Dickerson & Co., Inc. of Greenwich, Conn. Today's announcement of $3.0 million in financing brings Replicon to a total inception to date of $5.4 million. The company seeks an additional $2.5 million to close this Series A financing. RTI is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapeutic applications of replicons for human tumors. Replicons are modified viruses that seek out and destroy cancer cells. "Our initial focus is therapy for neural tumors," said Anthony Maida, chief executive officer of RTI. "There is a large, unmet need for this type of therapy, and these funds will allow the company to advance this new therapeutic approach into the clinic." Many classes of viruses possess a natural ability to attack cancer cells. Among these "oncolytic" (cancer killing) viruses is poliovirus poliovirus /po·lio·vi·rus/ (pol´-e-o-vi?rus) the causative agent of poliomyelitis, separable, on the basis of specificity of neutralizing antibody, into three serotypes designated types 1, 2, and 3. , which has an affinity for the brain and central nervous system. RTI's technology has harnessed the ability of poliovirus to destroy cancer while substantially altering the virus to eliminate harm. This is accomplished by deleting proteins that allow the virus to reproduce in the body and cause disease. What remains is a modified virus that can safely cross the blood-brain barrier blood-brain barrier n. Abbr. BBB A physiological mechanism that alters the permeability of brain capillaries so that some substances, such as certain drugs, are prevented from entering brain tissue, while other substances are allowed to and seeks out and destroy cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unaffected. Replicon Technologies Inc. (www.replicontechnologies.com) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapeutic applications of replicons for human tumors. RTI emerged in 1997 from laboratories at the University of Alabama at Birmingham UAB began in 1936 as the Birmingham Extension Center of the University of Alabama. Because of the rapid growth of the Birmingham area, it was decided that an extension program for students who had difficulties which prevented them from studying in Tuscaloosa was needed. . The company is in the process of manufacturing the replicons under conditions suitable for delivery to brain tumor Brain Tumor Definition A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in the brain. Unlike other tumors, brain tumors spread by local extension and rarely metastasize (spread) outside the brain. patients and expects to enter Phase I/II Clinical trials in 2003. RTI's corporate headquarters are in Danville, Calif.; research and manufacturing operations are located at the OADI OADI Office for the Advancement of Developing Industries (University of Alabama-Birmingham) Technology Center, a small business incubator affiliated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion