Chair selected for pivotal cancer trial

Mississauga, ON – March 30, 2004 – Cancer drug developer YM BioSciences has appointed Dr Kathleen Pritchard, MD, FRCPC, as the North American chair for the company’s upcoming international pivotal DEC study in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

The DEC study is a multinational randomized Phase III clinical trial for YM’s lead drug, tesmilifene, which will be combined with epirubicin/cyclophosphamide. The trial is designed to confirm the survival advantage demonstrated in a previous Phase III study (MA19) where tesmilifene was used in combination with the anthracycline doxorubicin to treat patients with metastatic breast cancer. In the first Phase III trial, the combination resulted in an overall survival advantage of greater than 50% over the standard of care alone.

“Dr Pritchard, of Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, is an internationally regarded oncologist who will ensure this important trial is performed under the highest standards,” says David Allan, chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences. “With this key step completed, we look forward to commencing this trial in the coming weeks.”

Dr Pritchard has led numerous national and international multi-centre clinical trials, is a member of scientific advisory boards for clinical trials world-wide and is widely published in the major cancer and general medical journals. She holds the following positions:

– professor, departments of medicine and public health sciences, University of Toronto,

– chair, breast cancer site group, Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre, and

– head, division of clinical trials & epidemiology, Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre