Phylonix Issued Broad U.S. Patent For Screening Angiogenic Compounds Using Zebrafish

Phylonix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S.
Patent No. 7,041,276, covering a unique method of drug screening for
angiogenesis in zebrafish. The patent, titled "Methods of Screening Agents
for Activity Using Teleosts" and issued May 9, 2006, is the fourth U.S.
patent issued to Phylonix for their pioneering work using zebrafish for
drug screening.


The patent, which encompasses 37 claims, includes a method of using
zebrafish to screen drug candidates for activity that is potentially useful
in the treatment or prevention of diseases involving angiogenic processes,
i.e., the enhancement or inhibition of the formation or growth of blood or
lymph vessels. The technology covered by the patent includes screening
transgenic and mutant zebrafish as well as treatment with chemicals,
proteins and gene knock-down reagents. Combined with quantitative
assessment of drug effects using microtiter plates (Phylonix, U.S. Patent,
6,656,449), access to this technology permits high throughput in vivo
screening of compound libraries.


"This patent adds considerably to the extensive Phylonix intellectual
property portfolio for drug screening using zebrafish," commented Patricia
McGrath, Phylonix President and Chief Executive Officer. "We believe the
lack of efficient early-stage in vivo screening assays contributes to high
late-stage attrition rates for clinical compounds as well as the
unsustainably high costs of drug development. The ability to conduct early
stage in vivo compound screening using Phylonix eZ-Screens(TM) is already
changing this landscape."


Advantages of Zebrafish for Angiogenic Drug Screening


Abnormal angiogenesis is involved in several serious diseases and
Phylonix has developed zebrafish animal models for assessing angiogenesis
in choroidal neovascularization, macular degeneration, wound healing and
xenotransplants. In addition, the company has developed a microplate-based
assay for quantitating drug effects on angiogenic vessel formation.


Zebrafish have several important advantages for use in basic research and
drug screening: they are small, inexpensive to maintain, and easily bred in
large numbers; eggs are externally fertilized and a single mating produces
100-200 eggs. Furthermore, since single embryos can be maintained in fluid
volumes as small as 100 microliters for the first six days of development,
they can be cultured in microtiter wells (Phylonix, U.S. Patent,
6,656,449). All essential components of vertebrate form and organ
development are mimicked in the transparent zebrafish and their molecular
basis is either identical or similar, underscoring the potential for use in
research on human diseases. Phylonix has demonstrated that for many
compounds, results in zebrafish correlate with results in other animal
models as well as with results in human clinical trials.


About Phylonix


Phylonix, located in Cambridge, MA, is a Contract Research Organization
developing and marketing novel in vivo zebrafish-based assays,
eZ-Screens(TM), for assessing drug candidates for cancers, central nervous
system disorders, cardiovascular diseases, apoptosis and organ toxicity.
The company's business strategy is to leverage the speed and
cost-effectiveness of the zebrafish model to provide services for
biopharmaceutical companies.


Phylonix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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