SAN DIEGO--- Maxim Pharmaceuticals Receives $1 Million Development Milestone Payment under Agreement with Myriad Genetics

Maxim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAXM) (SSE:MAXM) today reported that it achieved a $1.0 million development milestone under an agreement with Myriad Genetics. The milestone is based on the dosing of the first patient in a Phase 1 clinical program designed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetic profile of MPC-6827 in patients with advanced solid tumors.

"We are very pleased with Myriad's progress in the MPC-6827 program and look forward to the Phase 1 study results," stated Larry G. Stambaugh, Maxim's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "In the meantime we are continuing our efforts to advance other anti-cancer compounds into the clinic, either independently or through additional partnerships, over the next 12 to 18 months. Further, we have recently initiated a new campaign to screen about 60,000 new compounds using our proprietary caspase-3 screening technology, and we hope to discover new lead candidates and molecular targets that hold similar innovative promise as oncology drugs."

MPC-6827 is being developed by Myriad from a family of anti-cancer analogs discovered by Maxim through its proprietary high-throughput screening system that identifies compounds and molecular targets that induce programmed cell death, or apoptosis. In pre-clinical studies, MPC-6827 was notable in its breadth of activity, demonstrating activity that was better than control using current standard-of-care chemotherapy in xenograft models of breast, pancreas, colon, ovary and prostate cancers. Other lead compounds discovered by Maxim include MX2167, MX2407 (f/n/a MX116407) and MX128504. MX2167 is a novel anticancer agent that targets the transferrin receptor leading to a previously uncharacterized rapid induction of apoptosis in preclinical tumor models. MX2407 is part of a novel class of microtubule inhibitors with vascular targeting activity and strong antitumor activity in pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo studies. MX128504 targets a novel intracellular target and shows selectivity for breast and colorectal cancer.

Maxim Apoptosis Modulator Discovery Platform

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled cellular growth (e.g., tumor formation). One reason for unchecked growth in cancer cells is the disabling, or absence, of the natural process of programmed cell death called apoptosis. Apoptosis is normally triggered to destroy a cell from within when it outlives its purpose or it is seriously damaged. One of the most promising approaches in the fight against cancer is to selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells, thereby checking, and perhaps reversing, the improper cell growth.

Maxim researchers can efficiently identify new cancer drug candidates and molecular targets that selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells through the use of chemical genetics and our proprietary live cell high-throughput caspase-3 screening technology. Chemical genetics is a research approach investigating the effect of small molecule drug candidates on the cellular activity of a protein, enabling researchers to determine the protein's function. Using this approach with its proprietary caspase-3 screening technology, Maxim researchers can focus their investigation on the cellular activity of small molecule drug candidates and their relationship to apoptosis. The focus on apoptosis is achieved by screening for the activity of caspase-3, an enzyme with an essential role in cleaving other important proteins necessary to cause cell death through apoptosis. This combination, of chemical genetics and Maxim's screening technology, allows researchers to discover and rapidly test the effect of small molecules on pathways and molecular targets crucial to apoptosis, and gain insights into their potential as new anticancer agents. Our screening technology is particularly versatile and can be adapted for almost any cell type that can be cultured, and it can measure caspase activation inside multiple cell types (e.g. cancer cells, immune cells, or cell lines from different organ systems or genetically engineered cells). This allows researchers to find potential drug candidates that are selective for specific cancer types, which may help identify candidates that provide increased therapeutic benefit and reduced toxicity. For example, an assay is in development to identify compounds that are selective for the myc oncogene, which is over-expressed in many types of cancers. The versatility of the platform also allows for applications beyond cancer, such as inflammatory disease where we have developed an assay to identify immunosuppressive agents that selectively induce apoptosis in activated B and T cells.

Maxim's high-throughput screening capabilities allow researchers to screen approximately 30,000 compounds per day. To date, this program has identified several families of compounds with potentially novel mechanisms that induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Four compounds from within these families have progressed to lead drug candidate status with proven pre-clinical efficacies in tumor models and identified molecular targets.

Maxim Overview

Maxim Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative cancer therapeutics. Maxim's lead drug candidate is Ceplene(TM) (histamine dihydrochloride), which has shown a statistically significant improvement in leukemia free survival in a Phase 3 clinical trial as a remission maintenance therapy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Maxim is currently seeking a strategic partnership to complete commercialization and further development of Ceplene in AML and other indications. Maxim is also discovering and developing small-molecule apoptosis inducers to treat cancer using its proprietary high-throughput screening technology and its chemical genetics approach. This program has identified four lead oncology candidates that are proceeding to clinical trials independently and through collaborations.

Apoptosis compounds and Ceplene are investigational drugs and have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any international regulatory agency.