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 NOT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEREUS PHARMACEUTICALS ANNOUNCES DR. DANIEL VON HOFF JOINS ITS SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARDSAN DIEGO - July 16, 2002 - Nereus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pioneer in drug discovery and development from marine microbial sources, today announced that it has appointed Daniel Von Hoff, M.D. to its scientific advisory board. Throughout his 23-year career in cancer research, Dr. Von Hoff has been involved in the development of more than a dozen anticancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."Dr. Von Hoff's extensive experience in the field of cancer therapy will be instrumental in the growth and advancement of our program," said Kobi Sethna, president and CEO of Nereus. "This appointment follows our recently awarded patent for Nereus' anti-cancer compound, Halimide and its potential use for the treatment of breast cancer. His experience and insight will be valuable to us as we attempt to expand the compound's use for the treatment of other forms of cancer." Dr. Von Hoff is currently a professor of medicine, molecular and cellular biology and pathology and director of the Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He also serves as chief scientific officer for U.S. Oncology (Nasdaq: USON). Von Hoff's main interest is in the development of new anticancer agents. He was involved in the beginning of the development of many of the agents now in use to treat cancer, including mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, CPT-11 and others. He and his laboratory are now focused on discovery of new targets for pancreatic cancer. During his career, Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 480 papers, 125 book chapters, and 820 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff is a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research, a fellow of the American College of and a member and past board member of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. He helped found and is a board member of ILEXTM Oncology Inc. (Nasdaq: ILXO). He is founder and editor emeritus of Investigational New Drugs - The Journal of New Anticancer Agents, co-editor of ONE Oncology Economics, and editor of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. "Nereus' distinct drug discovery and development programs, utilizing untapped marine microbial sources, are offering new and promising compounds," said Dr. Von Hoff. "I look forward to helping shape the future of this innovative company." Nereus' lead compound, Halimide has been shown to prevent the formation of microtubules, filamentous structures that are required for many cell processes including cell division. Inhibiting the formation of these structures shuts down a tumor's ability to divide and grow. Nereus is already conducting pre-clinical in vivo studies with some of the Halimide derivatives.
About Nereus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ### |
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