(BW)(INCELL CORP)(INCELL) INCELLs Safe Oral Vaccine Will Potentially Eliminate Smallpox as a Weapon of Mass Destruction

SAN ANTONIO- (Dec. 12, 2002)- INCELL Corporation, a San Antonio-based biotechnology company (www.incell.com), is developing an innovative smallpox vaccine designed to be safe and effective, painless, available to everyone, and delivered orally, not with needles. INCELLs vaccine will provide additional immune protection while eliminating side effects of the current stockpiled vaccine and immunization methods.

Major General Harold Timboe, recently retired commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Vice President for Administration at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, says, INCELLs vaccine has the potential to revolutionize smallpox vaccination and UTHSCSA is pleased to be a collaborator on this cutting edge research and development."
Unvaccinated and previously vaccinated individuals, including those ineligible for the stockpiled vaccine, may receive INCELLs oral vaccine to provide maximum protection of the entire immune system. This includes the lining of the nose and mouth, the first smallpox infection sites. Previously, oral vaccination was not an option because old vaccine virus strains could grow in humans, causing painful sores in the mouth and gastrointestinal tract.

The new vaccine will eliminate the use of needles or syringes, specialized training in needle-prick vaccine delivery, and vaccine-associated side effects such as rashes,pustules, red swollen arms, and flu-like symptoms. To eliminate those side effects and make a vaccine available to everyone, the INCELL vaccine will combine oral delivery and modern manufacturing with a safe vaccine strain that cannot grow in humans. INCELL will replace currently used eighteenth century vaccination methods where calves are infected, and virus is drained from calf lymph fluid, to make a vaccine that is injected into humans where it grows in pustules that ooze infectious virus.

Chief Science Officer of INCELL, Dr. Mary Pat Moyer, says, We have been working on this safer vaccine for almost a year because current threats of bioterrorism have raised real concerns about the devastation that could result from a smallpox outbreak. We intend to begin clinical trials soon, as we believe that everyone should have the option to be safely vaccinated and that widespread use of this vaccine will remove the threat of smallpox as a weapon of mass destruction."

Interviews:
Dr. Mary Pat Moyer, Chief Science Officer
Contact Information:
Dr. Moyer; LuAnn Kirk
210-877-0100; 1-800-364-1765
Fax: 210-877-0200
mpmoyer@incell.com

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