Generx clinical development opportunities: bioRASI to assist Cardium

Feb 17 2010

Cardium Therapeutics (NYSE Amex: CXM) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with bioRASI, an international contract research organization, to assist Cardium in the evaluation of Generx clinical development opportunities within major newly-industrializing markets in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, for patients with chronic coronary artery disease who are either not optimal candidates for or do not have access to costly angioplasty/stenting or cardiac bypass surgery procedures.

Despite progress in the care and treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease in the industrialized world, heart disease remains a very serious problem in the U.S. and Europe, and advanced surgical procedures have been associated with considerable and increasing expense within already-burdened healthcare systems.  The situation is even worse in other parts of the world.  In many industrializing countries such as China, India and Russia, as well as in Latin America and the Middle East, the incidence of heart disease is rapidly increasing, and healthcare systems in many of these countries are unable to provide wide access to relatively expensive procedures such as coronary angioplasty and stenting, or cardiac bypass surgery (which in the U.S. can cost $50,000 to $100,000 over a five-year period following initial treatment).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Generx for a Phase 3 clinical study in the U.S. for women with late stage coronary artery disease who are unresponsive to traditional drug therapy and are not appropriate candidates for mechanical revascularization (angioplasty/stents or by-pass surgery), in connection with which Cardium previously announced plans to introduce an improved formulation of Generx that would not require storage at -70 degrees C.  In view of published results from an independent 10-year study among men and women with chronic coronary heart disease showing that improved collateral circulation was associated with approximately 66% lower cardiac mortality, and prior studies showing that a one-time infusion of Generx has the potential to achieve improved coronary collateral circulation in both men and women at levels approximately equivalent to bypass surgery as measured by SPECT imaging, the Company believes that Generx could potentially be developed as a cost effective front-line therapy for patients with coronary artery disease in the large markets of newly-industrializing countries who often do not have access to costly procedures such as bypass surgery.  Having such additional clinical evidence confirming the safety and effectiveness of Generx for improving coronary collateral circulation in men and women with severe coronary artery disease could also potentially be used to optimize and broaden commercial development pathways in the U.S. and other major markets such as Europe.

"This agreement with bioRASI represents an initial step forward to expand Cardium's access to new avenues for clinical and commercial development of our Generx product candidate in major global markets that are experiencing rapidly advancing cardiovascular disease but have much more limited use of costly surgical revascularization procedures.  bioRASI's international clinical research experience is expected to provide a cost-efficient means of advancing our Generx  product development efforts and expanding our clinical database to support the potential commercialization of this novel product candidate.  Based on data indicating that Generx appears to safe and has the potential to substantially increase coronary blood flow in the context of heart disease, together with an independent 10-year study that underscored the apparent significance of coronary circulation for long-term cardiac health, we believe that our Generx product candidate could be developed as a front-line therapy for coronary artery disease from a more global perspective.  Additional data gained from parallel studies would also be expected to support an expanded U.S. registration dossier by providing additional safety data and potentially alternative efficacy measures," stated Christopher J. Reinhard, Cardium Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.