By Donald Zuhn —

Last month, OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals,
Inc. announced
that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had issued U.S. Patent No. 7,569,551.  The '551 patent is
directed to a method of enhancing cancer cell chemo- or radiation-sensitivity using
an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide targeted against the testosterone-repressed
prostate message-2 (TRPM-2) gene.  The inventors found that that
administration of TRPM-2 antisense oligodeoxynucleotides can reduce the
expression of TRPM-2, and as a result enhance the sensitivity of cancer cells
to chemotherapeutic agents or radiotherapy either in vitro and in vivo.  While the '551 patent is assigned to
the University of British Columbia, Oncogenex
notes that it has exclusively licensed the patent.

According to the biopharmaceutical company's
announcement, the '551 patent encompasses methods for
treating cancers that express the protein clusterin (the historical name for
TRPM-2) using Oncogenex's lead cancer drug candidate, OGX-011 (also known as
custirsen sodium), or any other clusterin antisense oligonucleotide, in
combination with any chemotherapeutic agent or radiation therapy.  Oncogenex President and CEO Scott
Cormack stated that the '551 patent "expands [the company's] intellectual
property estate for treating clusterin-expressing cancers using antisense
therapy and provides us with a broad patent that applies well beyond prostate
cancer."

The Onogenex release also notes that OGX-011
utilizes antisense technology licensed from Isis Pharmaceuticals, and that OncoGenex
and Isis partnered in the discovery and initial development of OGX-011.  Last year, OncoGenex and Isis amended
their agreement involving OGX-011 to provide OncoGenex with sole rights to the
molecule and sole responsibility for its development, subject to financial
obligations to Isis.  The company's
website states that preliminary data in a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating
OGX-011 in combination with second-line chemotherapy in patients with hormone
refractory prostate cancer has shown that retreatment with docetaxel in
combination with OGX-011 may reverse docetaxel resistance and improve patient
survival.  OGX-011 is also being
tested for use in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and breast
cancer.

The '551 patent issued from U.S.
Application No. 09/967,726, filed September 28, 2001, which is a
continuation-in-part of U.S. Application No. 09/913,325, filed August 10, 2001,
which is a national stage application of International Application No.
PCT/US00/0487, filed February 25, 2000, and claims the benefit of U.S.
Provisional Application No. 60/236,301, filed September 28, 2000.  Independent claims 1 and 36 of the '551
patent recite:

1.  A method for enhancing the chemo- or radiation sensitivity
of cancer cells in an individual suffering from a cancer that expresses TRPM-2
in amounts different from normal tissue of the same type, comprising treating
the individual with either chemotherapy or radiation therapy and administering
to the individual a composition comprising an oligonucleotide targeted to
TRPM-2 and effective to inhibit expression of TRPM-2 by cancer cells during at
least a portion of the time that the chemotherapy or radiation therapy is active
against cancer cells.

36.  A method for treating a cancer which expresses TRPM-2 before
or after treatment with a chemotherapy agent, comprising administering to an
individual suffering from the cancer a chemotherapeutic agent which is at least
partially effective against the cancer and a an oligonucleotide which is
targeted to TRPM-2 and reduces the amount of TRPM-2 in cancer cell.