Pharmacyclics Reports Multiple Presentations at AACR on Its HDAC and Selective HDAC ...( SAN DIEGO and SUNNYVALE Calif. Ap...),Health

SAN DIEGO and SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pharmacyclics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCYC) today announced preclinical data from four presentations at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) being held this week in San Diego, CA. Results from multiple preclinical studies on the company's novel, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor and HDAC-8 selective inhibitor were presented.

"These presentations demonstrate the breadth of our research and development programs, and highlight our strong collaborations with academic leaders," said Richard A. Miller, M.D., president and CEO of Pharmacyclics. "Our lead HDAC inhibitor, PCI-24781, is now in Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with advanced solid tumors, and we anticipate initiating a Phase 1/2 study in lymphoma in the second quarter of calendar 2008; both studies will incorporate the use of biomarkers to predict tumor sensitivity to drug treatment."

Three studies were presented on Pharmacyclics' lead HDAC inhibitor, PCI-24781. PCI-24781 has been shown to inhibit all forms of HDAC enzymes to target a broad range of cancer types, including colon, breast, lung, prostate, and ovarian cancers, as well as glioma.

-- In laboratory studies conducted in collaboration with scientists at the

University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, PCI-24781 demonstrated

inhibition of NFkB, a transcription factor known to drive tumor growth.

-- In a separate study also conducted in collaboration with M.D. Anderson,

researchers found that PCI-24781 was active in transgenic animal models

of gallbladder cancer and other solid tumors. Treatment of animals with

resistant gallbladder tumors that
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