COMUNICADO DE CELL THERAPEUTICS

Cell Therapeutics Inc.'s Polyglutamate (PG) Technology

highlighted at International Polymer Therapeutics meeting

Novel Recombinant Technology Extends PG Platform to G-CSF

CARDIFF (WALES), 4 (PRNewswire)

In a plenary presentation at the 5th International Symposium on

Polymer Therapeutics, scientists from Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI)

(Nasdaq: CTIC) described a new technology that holds the potential to

make granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) less expensive to

produce and easier to administer. At the symposium, David Leung,

Ph.D., Director of Molecular Biology at CTI, described a process by

which he used recombinant DNA technology to produce PG linked to a

widely used therapeutic protein, G-CSF.

"Linking PG to an important biologic therapeutic such as G-CSF

may increase the plasma half-life of this agent allowing less

frequent or lower dosing to maintain the desired effectiveness," Dr.

Leung noted.

"CTI is in the process of expanding its PG drug delivery platform

to include biologic agents in addition to the chemotherapeutic agents

we are currently developing," stated Jack Singer, M.D., Executive

Vice President of Research at CTI, who chaired one of the meeting

sessions. He further indicated that including biologic agents is a

natural extension of the Company's polymer technology, since it has

been demonstrated that linking protein therapeutics to

first-generation polymers, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), has

improved the efficacy of interferon in hepatitis or decreased the

number of doses of G- CSF required to achieve a therapeutic effect.

However, laboratory studies suggest that unlike PEG-linked biologics,

the PG fusion molecules have the advantage of containing only a

single molecular species while retaining the same potency as the

native G-CSF protein. In addition, CTI believes this technology may

simplify and decrease the costs of production by enabling production

in bacteria rather than in mammalian cells.

CTI plans to scale up synthesis of selected PG-fusion proteins to

evaluate pharmacokinetics and efficacy in preclinical models. "A

clinical candidate could be selected some time next year," noted Dr.

Singer.

G-CSF (filgrastim) is used to reduce the risk of infections,

initially marked by fever, following chemotherapy that decreases the

infection-fighting white blood cells.

In other invited oral presentations at the symposium, Mary G.

Bolton, M.D., Ph.D., CTI Medical Director and Paul Sabbatini, M.D.,

Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center are expected to report on

Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of CTI's most advanced PG

product, CT-2103 (PG-TXL). CTI expects substantial new information on

these and other PG-TXL clinical studies to be presented at the

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in May.

About PG-Technology

CTI is currently developing two applications of its PG

technology, PG-TXL and PG-CPT, which link the PG polymer to leading

cancer drugs. The PG technology is designed to selectively deliver

higher and potentially more effective levels of active

chemotherapeutics to tumours by exploiting the fact that blood

vessels in tumour tissues are different than blood vessels in normal

tissues in that they are porous to molecules like polyglutamate.

Therefore, the PG-conjugate gets preferentially trapped in the tumour

blood vessels allowing significantly more of the dose of chemotherapy

to localise in the tumour. Because more of the chemotherapy is

targeted to the tumour and the levels of chemotherapy being delivered

to normal tissue are reduced, the PG- conjugate may be potentially

more effective and have less severe side effects than currently

available chemotherapeutics. PG-TXL is a first-in-class, smart

pharmaceutical that links paclitaxel, the active ingredient in

Taxol(R), the world's best selling cancer drug, to PG. PG-TXL is in

clinical trials as both single-agent therapy and in combination with

other chemotherapy agents for several types of cancer, including

colorectal, ovarian and non-small-cell lung cancer. PG-CPT, which

links PG to a camptothecin, is in preclinical development. CTI has

submitted an IND to the FDA and hopes to begin Phase I clinical

trials in the first quarter.

About Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Based in Seattle, CTI is a biopharmaceutical company committed to

developing an integrated portfolio of oncology products aimed at

making cancer more treatable. For more information about CTI's

product pipeline, refer to Company's website at www.cticseattle.com.

This announcement includes forward-looking statements that

involve a number of risks and uncertainties, the outcome of which

could materially and/or adversely affect actual future results.

Specifically, the risks and uncertainties that could affect the

development of CTI's products under development include risks

associated with preclinical and clinical developments in the

biopharmaceutical industry in general and with CTI's products under

development in particular including, without limitation, the

potential failure of all compounds to prove safe and effective for

treatment of disease, determinations by regulatory, patent and

administrative governmental authorities, competitive factors,

technological developments, costs of developing, producing and

selling CTI's products under development, and the risk factors listed

or described from time to time in the Company's filings with the

Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, the

Company's most recent filings on Forms 10-K, 8-K, S-3 and 10-Q.

Source: Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Contact: investors, Leah Grant, +1-206-282-7100, or fax,

+1-206-272-4010, or invest@ctiseattle.com, or media, Candice

Douglass, +1-206-272-4472, or fax, +1-206-272-4010, or

media@ctiseattle.com, both of Cell Therapeutics, Inc.; or Amy Mumma,

+1-212-884-4036, or fax, +1-212-880-2880, or amy.mumma@ogilvypr.com,

or Jakob Jakobsen, +1-310-407-7910, or fax, +1-310-407-7990, or

jakob.jakobsen@ogilvypr.com, or Europe, Lara Gee, +44-20-7309-1158,

or fax, +44-20-7309-1001, or lara.gee@uk.ogilvypr.com, all of Ogilvy

Public Relations Worldwide, for Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Web site: http://www.cticseattle.com

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