Austin, TX, October 11, 2001- Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: INGN) announced today that it has licensed a group of newly discovered and sequenced genes that appear to play a critical role in suppressing and preventing the development of lung and other cancers. This family of genes includes at least ten members. Discovery of these tumor suppressor genes represents a joint collaborative effort by scientists at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). These technologies have been added to Introgens broad exclusive license agreement with The University of Texas System M. D. Anderson Cancer Center through which numerous significant technologies and patents have already been licensed.

The genomics effort to discover and sequence the genes in this region was led by Michael Lerman, M.D., Ph.D., of the NCI and by John Minna, M.D., our collaborator at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said Jack A. Roth, M.D., chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Co-Executive Director of the Keck Center for Cancer Gene Therapy at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. We have now taken the next step by assigning function to them. We are excited to work with these particular genes because loss of this region is the earliest known genetic abnormality that occurs in the development of lung cancer, suggesting that these genes may be important gatekeepers in preventing the formation of cancer. The tumor suppressor genes we have identified may also be important in preventing the development of multiple types of human cancers since similar abnormalities have been found in renal, breast, head and neck, ovarian, and cervical cancers.

In collaboration with scientists at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, preclinical and clinical development of the genes in this region has begun. The tumor suppressor genes in this region have been incor
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Contact: C. Channing Burke
c.burke@introgen.com
512-708-9310
Porter Novelli
11-Oct-2001

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