WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 12, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OXiGENE, Inc. (Nasdaq:OXGN) (Stockholm:OXGN), a clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics to treat cancer and eye diseases, announced today that cancer drug development experts Nicole Onetto, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of ZymoGenetics, Inc., and Eric K. Rowinsky, M.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of ImClone Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, have joined the Board of Directors of Symphony ViDA, Inc. Symphony ViDA is a drug development company established in October 2008 by Symphony Capital Partners, in collaboration with OXiGENE, to fund and accelerate the development of OXi4503 for oncology and ZYBRESTAT(tm) for ophthalmology. In addition to joining the Symphony ViDA Board, Drs. Onetto and Rowinsky will serve as advisors to the Symphony ViDA Development Committee and the ZYBRESTAT Advisory Committee, which oversee the development of OXi4503 and ZYBRESTAT for ophthalmology as well as ZYBRESTAT for oncology.
Dr. Onetto has over twenty years of clinical drug development experience at leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and has served as the Chief Medical Officer of ZymoGenetics since September 2005. Prior to joining ZymoGenetics, Dr. Onetto was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at OSI Pharmaceuticals, where she headed the development organization and led the registrational program for Tarceva(r) for lung and pancreatic cancer. Prior to that role, Dr. Onetto served as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at Gilead Sciences and was also a Senior Executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) in the oncology organization. While at BMS, she was the International Project Leader for Taxol(r) and played a key role in the filing of the initial Taxol NDA as well several supplemental NDAs. She also held clinical research positions of increasing responsibility at NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Immunex and Hoechst. Dr. Onetto holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Paris (France), a Masters of Science in Pharmacology from the University of Montreal (Canada), a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Paris (France) and is also qualified in pediatrics and hematology/oncology.
Dr. Rowinsky has served as the Chief Medical Officer of ImClone since February 2005. Dr. Rowinsky was also a Clinical Professor of Medicine (Division of Medical Oncology) at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas from 1996 to 2006. More recently, Dr. Rowinsky held the position of Director of the Institute of Drug Development at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center's Institute for Drug Development (IDD) from 2002 to 2004 and was the Director of Clinical Research at the IDD from 1996 to 2002. In addition, he held the SBC Endowed Chair for Early Drug Development at the IDD. Dr. Rowinsky also served as an Associate Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University until 1996. Dr. Rowinsky's research and clinical interests include preclinical, translational, and early clinical and pharmacological studies of novel anticancer drugs, as well as discerning and evaluating developmental and regulatory strategies. Dr. Rowinsky has been a longstanding National Cancer Institute principal investigator on U01 anticancer drug development grants and has been integrally involved in pivotal clinical and preclinical investigations which led to the development of Taxol(r) (paclitaxel), Taxotere(r) (docetaxel), Hycamtin(r) (topotecan), Camptosar(r) (irinotecan), Tarceva(r) (erlotinib) and Iressa(r) (gefitinib), among others. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Investigational New Drugs, and an Associate Editor of Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology, and several other oncology journals and has published over 250 papers in both the preclinical and clinical research fields. He served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute from 2004 to 2007 and served as program committee co-chairman of the 16th EORTC-NCI-AACR Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 2004. Dr. Rowinsky received a B.A. degree from New York University and an M.D. degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Following his residency in internal medicine, he completed fellowship training in medical oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
John Kollins, Chief Executive Officer of OXiGENE, commented, "We welcome Drs. Onetto and Rowinsky to the Symphony ViDA Board of Directors. Their insights into cancer mechanisms, deep and broad expertise in designing successful clinical programs, and experience navigating clinical and regulatory pathways to bring promising new cancer therapies to the market will be invaluable as we collaborate with Symphony ViDA to advance our drug candidates through clinical development. We also look forward to getting the benefit of Dr. Onetto's and Dr. Rowinsky's input on our ZYBRESTAT oncology program."
Mark Kessel, Chairman of Symphony ViDA and a member of OXiGENE's Board of Directors, stated, "We are delighted that individuals of the caliber of Drs. Onetto and Rowinsky have agreed to work with us in our collaboration with OXiGENE. By leveraging their experience in both research and commercial development of biotechnology products, we expect that Symphony and OXiGENE will be able to maximize the opportunity to bring these promising drugs to physicians and patients."
OXi4503 is a dual-mechanism, second-generation vascular disrupting agent (VDA) that has demonstrated promising anti-tumor activity in preclinical studies, and is being evaluated in a Phase 1 trial in patients with advanced solid tumors, and for which an expanded clinical study program in liver cancer and leukemia is anticipated to begin in the first half of 2009. ZYBRESTAT for ophthalmology is in preclinical development as a potential topical treatment for eye diseases characterized by abnormal neovascularization, including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and other indications. An expanded ZYBRESTAT ophthalmology Phase II clinical study program with intravenous-route administration is anticipated to begin in the first half of 2009 and is designed to provide information that will support development of the topical formulation.
About ZYBRESTAT (fosbretabulin)
ZYBRESTAT is currently being evaluated in a pivotal registration study in anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) under a Special Protocol Assessment agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). OXiGENE believes that ZYBRESTAT is poised to be among the first therapeutic products in a novel class of small-molecule drug candidates called vascular disrupting agents (VDAs). Through interaction with vascular endothelial cell cytoskeletal proteins, ZYBRESTAT selectively targets and collapses tumor vasculature, thereby depriving the tumor of oxygen and causing death of tumor cells. In clinical studies in solid tumors, ZYBRESTAT has demonstrated potent and selective activity against tumor vasculature, as well as clinical activity against ATC, ovarian cancer, and various other solid tumors.
The Company is working to develop a convenient and patient-friendly topical formulation of ZYBRESTAT for ophthalmological indications. In a proof-of-concept clinical study in patients with myopic macular degeneration, intravenously-administered ZYBRESTAT demonstrated signs of clinical activity, and preclinical studies in multiple species suggest topically-administered ZYBRESTAT results in drug concentrations in target eye tissues (retina and choroid) that the Company believes are sufficient for therapeutic effects.
About OXi4503
OXi4503 (combretastatin A1 di-phosphate / CA1P) is a dual-mechanism VDA that is being developed in clinical studies for the treatment of solid and liquid tumors. Like its structural analog, ZYBRESTAT (fosbretabulin / CA4P), OXi4503 has been observed to block and destroy tumor vasculature, resulting in extensive tumor cell death and necrosis. In addition, preclinical data indicates that OXi4503 is metabolized by oxidative enzymes (e.g., tyrosinase and peroxidases), which are elevated in many solid tumors and tumor white blood cell infiltrates, to an orthoquinone chemical species that has direct cytotoxic effects on tumor cells. Preclinical studies have shown that OXi4503 has (i) single-agent activity against a range of xenograft tumor models; and (ii) synergistic or additive effects when incorporated in various combination regimens with chemotherapy, molecularly-targeted therapies (including tumor-angiogenesis inhibitors) and radiation therapy. OXi4503 is currently being evaluated as a monotherapy in a Phase 1 dose-escalation clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors.
About OXiGENE
OXiGENE is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics to treat cancer and eye diseases. The Company's major focus is developing VDAs that selectively disrupt abnormal blood vessels associated with solid tumor progression and visual impairment. OXiGENE is dedicated to leveraging its intellectual property and therapeutic development expertise to bring life-extending and -enhancing medicines to patients.
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Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any or all of the forward-looking statements in this press release may turn out to be wrong. Forward-looking statements can be affected by inaccurate assumptions OXiGENE might make or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, enrollment rate for patients in the ZYBRESTAT pivotal trial for anaplastic thyroid cancer, timing for an interim analysis of the same, timing of the development of a topical formulation of ZYBRESTAT, timing of clinical development of OXi4503, timing of a Phase 2 clinical trial of ZYBRESTAT and bevacizumab in non-small cell lung cancer, timing of a Phase 2 clinical trial of ZYBRESTAT in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, timing or execution of a strategic collaboration on any product or indication, and cash utilization rates. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in OXiGENE's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including OXiGENE's reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. However, OXiGENE undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. Please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007.