Onyvax Announces EC Funded Research Collaboration To Develop New Lung Cancer Treatments

London, UK – 29 October 2004: Onyvax Limited, the biotechnology company developing novel cancer therapies, today announced the award of a European Community grant worth €1.6M, over two years, to fund a new multi-national project created to develop new vaccine therapies for lung cancer. The Research Consortium, in which Onyvax is involved, is being funded by the European Community under its Sixth Framework Programme which primarily serves to strengthen the scientific and technological bases of European industry. The programme is expected to start imminently.

Onyvax Limited (United Kingdom), Mubio Products BV (The Netherlands), CIRES GmbH (Germany), Medical Proteom-Center (Germany) and the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands) will pool their collective expertise to derive new lung cancer cell lines, develop new vaccine approaches and discover and validate new lung cancer antigens.

Commenting on the collaboration, Anthony Walker, Chief Executive of Onyvax, said, “We are delighted to be participating in such a prestigious research collaboration. Following the successful Phase II clinical trial results for Onyvax-P, a Cell Vaccine for prostate cancer, our strategy is to roll out the technology to a range of other cancer types. This collaboration will successfully launch our lung cancer programme."

For further information, please contact:

Onyvax
Dr Anthony Walker / Robert Johnson
+44 (0) 208 682 9494

Financial Dynamics
Julia Philips / Lucy Briggs
+44 (0) 207 831 3113

Notes to Editors:

Lung cancer is the number one killer amongst cancer patients accounting for approximately 1 out of every 5 deaths in Europe. Despite considerable efforts, the overall survival rate of lung cancer patients has increased only marginally. The continuous rise in the average age of the European population, the growing numbers of female smokers and the joining of Eastern European countries to the EU that have higher rates of smokers will increase the incidence of the disease. The need for new therapies is acute.

Onyvax Ltd is a biotechnology company developing novel cancer therapies that harness the selective power of the immune system to seek and destroy tumour cells.

 

Further information on Onyvax can be found at www.onyvax.com