OncoVista Innovative Therapies, Inc. (OTCBB: OVIT), a
high-growth global biotech company developing proprietary,
leading-edge early detection and drug technologies to enable safe,
targeted personal cancer treatments, today released a letter to
shareholders from Chief Executive Officer, Alexander L. Weis Ph.D.
to update shareholders on the Company’s progress and potential.
My Fellow Shareholders:
The greatest enemy to both the cancer patient and physician is
time: the length of time to diagnosis, to targeted treatment, to
determining efficacy and the most important, to the disease’s
recurrence.
OncoVista was launched in the fall of 2004. Our mandate from
inception was and remains very specific: reduce the timeframe for
cancer detection, enhance personalized treatment and monitoring and
the result will be significantly more lives saved. I firmly believe
we have achieved that goal and have the technology that will lead
the industry in this endeavor.
Once the import of our technology, which is currently deployed
in ten European countries (with U.S. approval expected by 2012), is
fully embraced the potential of OncoVista is, in my opinion,
promising.
While early detection remains the Holy Grail in the success of
current cancer treatments, the rise of personalized treatment is
becoming a vast sector in the fight against this disease. Let me
give you a brief synopsis of our technology followed by the varied
applications.
Developed by OncoVista's AdnaGen AG subsidiary, a world leader
in molecular diagnostics (OncoVista owns 78% of the company), our
patented technology provides the following functions:
- The patented AdnaGen test is
able to identify the number of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC)
flowing in the blood via a standard blood sample.
- Through this process, the
efficacy of a specific drug can be determined on an individual
patient based upon their specific tumor type. This allows the
administration of more effective drugs while not subjecting
patients to a toxic cocktail of chemotherapy drugs that may not be
beneficial.
- The AdnaGen test can also detect
early signs of metastasis and be further utilized to verify whether
or not a targeted chemotherapy drug is effective on the specific
tumor cells shortly after the therapy is administered; thereby
reducing the critical timeframes needed to assess whether a
chemotherapy treatment is indeed effective.
- Results from the AdnaGen test
allow oncologists to employ only the most effective drugs and
monitor the effectiveness in days or weeks as opposed to months
under the current therapies.
- Current chemotherapy regimes are
only effective about 30% of the time and involve trying different
drugs and combinations of drugs which results in a critical time
delay potentially affecting treatment and outcomes.
- The AdnaGen test also has
significant potential for helping a pharmaceutical company identify
the optimal profile for individual patients entering clinical trial
populations.
- OncoVista also utilizes
innovative drug discovery, registration strategies and emerging
technologies allowing it to bring to market less toxic and highly
effective anti-cancer drugs.
- Time saved is money saved in an
already overburdened medical system that demands the best, most
efficacious and cost-effective treatments.
Put in the proper perspective, we believe OncoVista’s
revolutionary approach to evaluating cancer therapeutic efficacy
can dramatically improve a patient’s chance of survival. The
Company’s numerous U.S. and worldwide patents, as well as those
applications currently awaiting approval, protect our technologies
for the benefit of our shareholders.
Unlike pure-play biotech development companies that exclusively
consume capital, OncoVista’s synergistic product portfolio
currently generates increasing revenues. The Company reported Q1
2010 revenues of approximately $336,000, an increase of
approximately 89% over Q1 2009. Most importantly, we reduced our
net loss per share to $0.02 from $0.08 over the same period.
The increase in Q1 2010 revenues is primarily attributable to
increased sales of AdnaGen diagnostic kits as well as research and
development revenues. Research and development expenses, as well as
administrative expenses, were also significantly reduced.
Biomarker targeted drugs (companion diagnostics) are the core
business of OncoVista. The Company’s technology is not only capable
of following the molecular signature of the metastatic tumor as
noted above, but also to quantitate the over-expression of the
biomarker in patients. These indications allow fast and efficient
development of highly efficacious and new-targeted drugs.
CTC’s are cells that circulate in the bloodstream which may
constitute seeds for subsequent growth of additional tumors
(metastasis) in different tissues. OncoVista uses its CTC
analytical technology to acquire and develop personalized drug
therapeutics that target cancer patients expressing particular
biomarkers.
In Europe, AdnaGen currently offers diagnostic products for
colon, prostate, ovarian and breast cancer diagnosis with a
specificity of >90% at a sensitivity of two tumor cells per ten
million (107) normal nucleated cells, enabling the reproducible
detection of low levels of CTC’s in the blood.
Make no mistake; OncoVista is in the business of saving lives
and producing consistent shareholder value, in that order.
I look forward to bringing shareholders more salient news
throughout 2010, which will undoubtedly be the most exciting and
growth oriented in the Company’s history, both from a technological
and corporate perspective.
Thank you for your attention and continued support. These are
indeed exciting times for OncoVista and its shareholders.
Regards,
Alexander L. Weis, Ph.D.
About OncoVista:
Texas-based OncoVista Innovative Therapies, Inc. (OTCBB: OVIT)
is a high-growth theragnostic (the fusion of therapeutic and
diagnostic medicine for individual patients) company that
identifies specific biomarkers in the bloodstream carried by CTC’s
to detect metastatic tumors. This allows an oncologist the unique
ability to develop personalized, efficacious cancer treatments.
While oncologists typically require several months before
visually evaluating a tumor’s growth or shrinkage, OncoVista’s
proprietary product, AdnaGen Diagnostics, detects meaningful
fluctuations in the biomarkers expressed by CTC’s in just weeks.
This revolutionary approach to evaluating cancer therapeutic
efficacy can dramatically improve a patient’s chance of survival.
OncoVista owns 78% of German-based AdnaGen AG, a world leader in
diagnostic technology. AdnaGen’s patented detection products are
currently deployed across ten countries in Europe with United
States marketing approval expected by 2012.
OncoVista also produces innovative drug discovery, registration
strategies and emerging technologies allowing it to bring to market
less toxic and highly effective anti-cancer drugs.
For additional information, please visit OncoVista’s corporate
website: www.oncovista.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995: This release includes forward-looking
statements intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability
established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified
by phrases such as OncoVista or its management "believes,"
"expects," "anticipates," "foresees," "forecasts," "estimates" or
other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, such
statements in this release that describe the company's business
strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions, or goals also are
forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are
subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in forward-looking
statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other
things, product price volatility, product demand, market
competition, and risk inherent in the operations of a company. We
assume no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking
statement made by us or on our behalf as a result of new
information, future events or other factors.
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