LYNNE COHEN FOUNDATION & KINETEK PHARMACEUTICALS CO-FUND DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE OVARIAN CANCER THERAPY AT MD ANDERSON

LOS ANGELES, CA, SEPTEMBER 27, 2002 – The Lynne Cohen Foundation for Ovarian Cancer Research and Kinetek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, announced today that they would co-fund a $92,000 gift to Gordon Mills, MD, PhD, Chairman of Molecular Therapeutics at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The purpose of this collaborative project is to investigate the potential that inhibitors of the PI3K pathway will stop the growth of ovarian cancer cells. The first steps will be to test the activity of inhibitors in ovarian cancer cell lines, followed by selection of the most promising compounds and their testing in animal models of ovarian cancer. Preliminary data indicates that the PI3K pathway may be very important for the development of new blood vessels needed for the growth of ovarian and other cancers. Amy Cohen Epstein (26), President of The Lynne Cohen Foundation, hopes to help other women avoid the pain and hardship her mother endured during her five year battle with the disease. “The projects we choose,” says Amy, “elucidate the extraordinary commitment of The Lynne Cohen Foundation to support research that will increase survival and improve the quality of life for women with ovarian cancer.”

Kinetek’s mission is to discover, develop and partner highly effective and selective drugs. To this end, they target protein kinases and protein phosphatases for optimal therapeutic intervention. Kinetek’s major objective in cancer is to “chronicize” the disease by blocking cancer cell proliferation, invasion and promoting apoptosis. For this reason, the PI3 kinase pathway represents an excellent target for therapeutic intervention. The PI3 Kinase signaling pathway is dysregulated in many major cancer types and controls the key processes of angiogenesis, apoptosis, cell invasion and proliferation. Cancers with defective PI3K components are often highly aggressive, frequently metastasize, and may be resistant to conventional therapy.

Ovarian cancer is considered the most deadly gynecological cancer, striking 27,000 women and killing approximately 14,000 every year in the United States. Presently there is no early detection test for ovarian cancer. As a result, 75% of the women diagnosed have late stage disease and only a 12% chance of surviving five years. The Lynne Cohen Foundation is committed to changing those statistics and believes that further investigation of the PI3K pathway is of the utmost relevance.

A 2001 recipient of the Reader’s Digest Health Heroes Award, The Lynne Cohen Foundation for Ovarian Cancer Research is a unique nonprofit foundation that raises funds for cutting-edge medical research in the women’s healthcare field. Created in 1998 in memory of Lynne Cohen by her three daughters (in their twenties), the Lynne Cohen Foundation is dedicated to finding an early detection test for ovarian cancer, to establishing high risk clinics for women with family members who have been diagnosed with ovarian and/or breast cancer, and to finding better clinical treatments for women struggling with women’s cancers. The Foundation currently has two preventive care clinics for women’s cancers, The Lynne Cohen Cancer Screening & Prevention Project at NYU Cancer Institute in New York, and The Lynne Cohen Preventive Care Clinic for Women’s Cancers at USC/Norris Cancer Center in Los Angeles.

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