Antigenics, Inc

Geron Corp


230 Constitution Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94025

USA


Phone: (650) 473-7700
Fax: (650) 473-7701
Email: info@geron.com
Web Site: http://www.geron.com/


A. Company Profile

 

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapeutic products for cancer. The Company's products are based on its telomerase technology. It is working to develop anti-cancer therapies based on telomerase inhibitors, telomerase therapeutic vaccines and, through its collaborators, telomerase-based oncolytic (cancer-killing) viruses.

 

B. Products

 

 

Product Pipelines

 

 

Product

 

 

Indication

 

Clinical Status

GRN163 or GRN163 L

 

Various tumors

 

Phase I-II

 

TVAX

 

Prostate cancer

 

Phase I-II

 

1. GRN163 or GRN163 L

 

GRN163 is an inhibitor of telomerase. GRN163L is identical in structure to GRN163 except that it has a lipid attached to one end of the molecule, which appears to improve its pharmacokinetics and should make its manufacture more efficient and less expensive. telomerase is not present in most normal cells and tissues, but that during tumor progression, telomerase is abnormally reactivated in all major cancer types. Telomerase enables cancer cells to maintain telomere length, providing them with indefinite replicative capacity. Inhibiting telomerase activity results in telomere shortening and therefore causes aging or death of the cancer cell.

 

2. TVAX

 

TVAX (Telomerase cancer vaccine) is made by an ex vivo (outside the body) process in which dendritic cells (the most efficient antigen-presenting cells in the body) are isolated from cancer patient's blood, pulsed with telomease RNA. The vaccine is then used to vaccinate patient. The vaccine induces telomerase specific cytotoxic T cell responses.