The News

Diatos acquires oncology product rights from Macromed

05/01/2005

– OncoGel® is a Proprietary Formulation of Paclitaxel –

PARIS, FRANCE and SANDY, UTAH – January 5, 2005 – Diatos S.A. and MacroMed, Inc. announced today the signing of a license agreement granting Diatos exclusive rights to develop and commercialize OncoGel® (injectable paclitaxel formulation for local, intra-tumoral administration) worldwide except for North America and Korea.  In addition, Diatos also received rights to sublicense OncoGel and to develop and commercialize second generation OncoGel products.

Diatos and MacroMed, both privately held biopharmaceutical companies, will collaborate on the clinical development of OncoGel, sharing data from clinical trials conducted in their respective territories. Diatos and MacroMed intend to develop OncoGel for treatment of several types of solid tumors, which may include breast, lung, esophageal, head and neck, brain, liver, colon, pancreas and ovarian cancers. OncoGel is currently in Phase II clinical trials in the US for esophageal cancer. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Diatos will pay MacroMed a license fee, milestone payments, and royalties on product sales.  In addition, MacroMed has retained the right to provide the majority of clinical and commercial supplies of OncoGel to Diatos.

“We are delighted to add OncoGel to our product development portfolio, as it enhances our oncology product pipeline with a second clinical-stage product,” said Dr. John Tchelingerian, President and Chief Executive Officer of Diatos.  “The acquisition of OncoGel fits well with our mission to develop oncology drug products through in-licensing as well as internal development.” 

MacroMed Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Bergmann, stated, “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to work with Diatos to develop and commercialize this exciting product worldwide.  We have confidence in Diatos’s expertise to continue OncoGel’s development in Europe and initiate new development in Asia, while allowing us to focus our resources on development in the US.”

OncoGel is an injectable, controlled-release formulation of paclitaxel.  Paclitaxel is a well-characterized, anti-neoplastic agent that inhibits cell proliferation.  Once injected, OncoGel maintains a high, long-term intra-tumoral concentration of paclitaxel with minimal systemic exposure which may make it ideal for neoadjuvant, adjuvant and palliative treatment settings. OncoGel therapy may also prove to be effective in various types of tumors, including Taxol®-resistant tumors and in tumors with long cell division cycles.

OncoGel utilizes MacroMed’s proprietary ReGel® drug delivery system. ReGel is a thermosensitive, triblock copolymer comprised of the biocompatible and biodegradable components poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG).  Upon injection, ReGel forms an insoluble gel depot and controls the release of active compounds for systemic or local delivery over periods of up to one month.

About Diatos
Diatos is a product-driven biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of novel anti-cancer therapies.  The company’s lead therapeutic candidate DTS-201, a doxorubicin prodrug, is planned to enter Phase I/II clinical trials in 2005. Diatos is also expanding its product pipeline with new compounds that utilize the Diatos Peptide Vector (DPV) intra-cellular/intra-nuclear Vectocell® delivery technology or its Tumor Selective Prodrug (TSP) technology as well as with in-licensed clinical-stage cancer therapies. Diatos has entered into research collaboration agreements with several European and US biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for the use of DPV technology.

Founded in 1999 as a spin-off from Institut Pasteur, Diatos has raised 33 million Euros to date from Sofinnova Partners (France), GIMV (Belgium), InterWest Partners (USA), Credit Lyonnais Private Equity (France), AGF Private Equity (France), NIF Ventures (Japan), Société Générale Asset Management (France), Sopartec (Belgium), Innoven Partenaires (France) and Biotech Fund Flanders (Belgium). Diatos is headquartered in Paris and has operations in Belgium and the United States.

About MacroMed
Established in 1995, MacroMed is a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products utilizing its proprietary polymer technologies. MacroMed collaborates with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has its own pipeline of several products in various stages of preclinical and clinical development for cancer management (OncoGel®, Cytoryn™), moderate to moderately severe pain (Doloryn™) and growth hormone deficiency (Ascentra™). For more information about MacroMed visit MacroMed’s website at www.macromed.com.