GENTA $ 8.4 MIL. FOLLOW-UP VENTURE FUNDING EXCEEDS TARGET: FIRM PLANS IND THIS AUTUMN FOR SYSTEMIC ANTISENSE PRODUCT FOR CHRONIC MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA

Genta's eight venture capital investors are providing another $ 8.4 mil. for the firm's antisense development projects. The San Diego, Calif.-based firm completed a follow-up round of financing from the venture group on Aug. 12. The just-completed financing exceeded Genta's target of $ 6 mil. by more than 30%. The new capital will be used to fund continued clinical and preclinical development of antisense products. The participating investment firms are Asset Management Associates; Biotechnology Investments, Ltd.; Brentwood Associates; Domain Associates; Hook Partners; Institutional Venture Partners; Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; and U.S. Venture Partners. Genta aims to submit its first IND by late autumn for its lead product, a systemic therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia based on the company's proprietary Matagen oligomer sequences. The filing, if it proceeds on schedule, could be the first U.S. IND for an antisense therapy. Another firm which was aiming at an antisense IND filing this year, Hybridon, is now not making predictions on its filing for an oligonucleotide AIDS therapeutic ("The Pink Sheet" January 14, T&G-7). MATAGEN (masking tape for genetic expression) technology uses molecules designed out of oligonucleotides that are complementary to elements in the target cells' RNA. Once delivered to the target, the molecules are designed to bind with and block a specific piece of messenger RNA, halting the translation of its genetic instructions and preventing the production of protein. Genta markets monomers to the research community for synthesis of methylphosphonate oligonucleotides under the MATAGEN trade name. The company has a staff of 55 and had reported raising $ 8.5 mil. of venture capital prior to its new infusion of cash. Genta holds exclusive licenses from pioneer antisense researchers Paul Tso, PhD, and Paul Miller, PhD of Johns Hopkins University. In addition to its leukemia therapy, Genta is researching antisense products to treat or prevent serious viral illnesses and cancers. The company has made two acquisitions in 1991, most recently dermatologics firm Virna Pharmaceuticals, whose topical delivery technology Genta expects to use with several antisense products still in early development ("The Pink Sheet" July 1, In Brief). Genta's January acquisition of JBL Scientific, an 18-year old San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based supplier of reagents and organic chemicals to research labs was designed to help consolidate and reduce bulk production costs. Genta has made rapid progress in reducing its oligonucleotide production costs over two-and-a-half years. At the beginning of that period, producing the synthetic oligonucleotide genetic material cost lab researchers approximately $ 10,000 per gram. That cost has been cut to the point that the final product now is estimated at about $ 1,000 a gram. The company projects that further efficiencies could achieve a bulk production cost of $ 150-200 per gram. The firm's progress in lowering production costs is pointed out in a recent report on the antisense research field, "Antisense Related Therapeutics: Business Opportunities and Threats," published by POV, Inc. Cost reduction will be a pivotal factor in the success of further development of antisense technology, POV predicts: "For most uses, dramatic cost reductions are needed to achieve economical therapy. Although antisense therapeutics may provide the only rational treatment for some niche products, there are many other drugs in development for many of the early antisense drug products." [Editors' Note: The POV report is available from F-D-C Reports. The cost is $ 3,750. Contact Bill Robinson at 301-657-9830 or FAX [phone].] Antisense agents are designed to block unwanted gene functions, such as viral replication or the overproduction of proteins as part of a disease state. Biotech companies are pursuing a variety of techniques by which the transcription of genetic DNA by messenger RNA can be neutralized in diseases that involve the harmful functioning of a gene. Genta is pursuing strategies that utilize oligonucleotides, short strands of synthetic DNA or RNA consisting of nucleotide units joined together via phosphate groups.