OXiGENE announces launch of ophthalmic clinical trial at The Johns Hopkins School o...( Watertown Massachusetts July 2 2003 ...)

Watertown, Massachusetts, July 2, 2003 OXiGENE, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXGN, XSSE: OXGN) today announced that The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will begin a Phase I/II clinical trial of the Company's lead vascular targeting agent, Combretastatin A4 Prodrug (CA4P). The study will be conducted in patients with a retinal degenerative disease known as wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Between 2 million and 3 million people in the United States have significant vision loss caused by wet AMD.

"From a scientific perspective, this trial is significant because it marks the first study of a vascular targeting agent, initially developed to treat cancer, in patients with wet AMD," said Fred Driscoll, OXiGENE's president and chief executive officer. "From a corporate perspective, this trial strategically broadens our clinical development program into a second major area. Both oncology and ophthalmology offer significant market opportunities with unmet therapeutic needs."

Under the trial protocol, which was reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, approximately 20 patients are scheduled to participate in the study. The study is now open for enrollment at Johns Hopkins' Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The trial will be led by Quan Dong Nguyen, M.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology, and Peter Campochiaro, M.D., professor of ophthalmology, at Wilmer. As OXiGENE announced in October 2002, the trial is being funded by The Foundation Fighting Blindness, Inc. (FFB), the nation's premier non-profit eye research organization, whose mission is to discover the causes, treatments and cures for degenerative retinal eye diseases.

"CA4P has exhibited very promising pre-clinical results in preventing and causing regression of choroidal neovascularization, the major cause of severe vision loss in patients with age-related macular degeneration," said Dr. Jerry Chader, the FFB's chief scientific officer and a former sci
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Contact: Scott Solomon
ssolomon@investorrelations.com
617-542-5300
Sharon Merrill Associates, Inc.
2-Jul-2003

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