Genetic Therapy Gets NIH Patent

GAITHERSBURG, Md--The National Institutes of Health (NIH) haslicensed its broad patent covering gene therapy techniques toGenetic Therapy, Inc. The inventors cited on the patent are genetherapy pioneers W. French Anderson, Steven Rosenberg, and MichaelBlaese.

In other news, Genetic Therapy has announced the start of a multicenterphase I/II clinical trial using gene therapy to treat inoperablemalignant brain tumors. This trial is being conducted in parallelwith an ongoing trial for operable malignant brain tumors.

The initial study will enroll 15 patients who will receive injectionsinto the tumor that produce genetically altered vectors. Thesevectors transfer into the tumor cells the gene for the enzymethymidine kinase. Cells that express this gene produce thymidinekinase, making them susceptible to ganciclovir (Cytovene). Gancicloviris then given to destroy tumor cells that have expressed the enzyme.