Raven Announces Initiation of a RAV12 Phase 2 Clinical Trial in Metastatic Pancrea...(y alters cellular signaling required for...),Health

About Pancreatic Cancer

Adenocarcinoma of the pancreas is a major unmet medical need and represents the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the US. Approximately 34,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are reported in the US each year. Five-year survival rates are approximately 1% to 2%. Gemcitabine was approved for use in pancreatic cancer a decade ago, but little advance in treatment outcomes has occurred since.

About Raven

Raven biotechnologies, inc. (http://www.ravenbio.com) is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for treating cancer. Raven's lead product candidate, RAV12, targets adenocarcinomas and is in clinical development for the treatment of gastrointestinal and other cancers. Raven's discovery process simultaneously identifies cell-surface drug targets and the antibody therapeutics to regulate them. Our focus on biological function allows us to rapidly identify novel target antigens and therapeutic candidates in their native configuration in the intact cell membrane. Our integrated approach is based on proprietary methods for optimizing the production of MAbs targeting cell-surface proteins, including the use of human tissue-specific progenitor and tumor stem cell lines developed at Raven.

To date Raven has identified multiple candidate therapeutic MAbs for many cancer indications including lung, colon, pancreatic, prostate, breast and ovarian cancer.

On November 12, 2007, Raven and VaxGen Inc. (OTC: VXGN.PK), a biopharmaceutical company, announced that their respective boards of directors unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement. The merger is expected
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