Active Biotech concentrates upon cancer diagnostics

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Active Biotech concentrates upon cancer diagnostics Today Active Biotech concludes an agreement regarding the rights to cancer diagnostics, which the Tumour Immunology Group in Linköping, has developed. A research group at the University Hospital in Linköping, with Senior Research Fellow Leif Håkansson at its head, has developed a method, which can enable a more successful treatment result to be achieved than that which is currently possible, especially for patients with kidney cancer and malignant melanoma (skin cancer). The information obtained from the tests may also be employed in managing the treatment. The agreement means that Active Biotech take over the further development in co-operation with the research group in Linköping. The method for the tests exists at present at a research stage. In order to provide the conditions for a comprehensive clinical assessment, a rapid and simple accessibility, as well as the opportunity for commercialisation, there is a need to develop the test methods further into a "ready-to-use" kit. Active Biotech will be responsible for method development up to the point of a product - a test kit for commercialisation. "The tests are in line with our own direction with regard to the cancer sector, and can be connected up to methods of treatment", says Karl Olof Borg, Head of Research at Active Biotech. "We possess the expertise and the will to develop ourselves within the cancer sector. Our research co-operation with Pharmacia & Upjohn is one example of an immunological cancer treatment method." By means of the tests it is possible to modify and develop treatment strategies for the types of tumour which are currently accessible to immuno- therapy, i.e. malignant melanoma and kidney cancer. The tests can predict which patients have the greatest prospect of responding to treatment with Interferon-@ and save other patients a pointless treatment with unnecessary side-effects. Moreover there are health care benefits to be gained by refraining from expensive treatments which lack the prerequisites for success. The costs of medicine alone for a melanoma patient who is treated with Interferon-@ can amount to SEK 300 000 per year. For more information please contact: Karl Olof Borg, Head of Research Active Biotech AB, Tel. +46 46-19 10 00. Active Biotech AB has an extensive project portfolio and considerable financial resources. Sales for the biotechnology sector of Active Biotech amounted to appr. SEK 259 million in 1998 and the number of employees was 317. A total of 185 researchers in Lund, Solna and Cambridge develop vaccines against tourist diarrhoea, cholera, polio and streptococcal infections, as well as conducting research into medicines against, among other things, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, cancer and asthma. Active Biotech AB, Box 724, S-220 07 Lund, Tel +46 46-19 10 00, E-mail info@activebiotech.com Home page: www.activebiotech.com. Org. no. 556223-9227 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/03/29/19990329BIT00620/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/03/29/19990329BIT00620/bit0002.pdf