SEATTLE, Aug. 3 /CNW/ - Oncothyreon Inc. (Nasdaq: ONTY) (TSX:ONY) (the "Company") today announced that clinical data relating to long-term treatment with Stimuvax were presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer in San Francisco on August 1, 2009. The presentation by Dr. Glenwood Goss from the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, involved 16 patients who received treatment with Stimuvax for between 2 and 8.2 years as part of the Phase 2b trial in patients with stage IIIb/IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

As of the time of data analysis in April 2009, 10 of the 16 studied patients were alive without evidence of disease progression, of whom eight continued to receive therapy with Stimuvax after 6.3 to 8.2 years. The remaining two living patients discontinued Stimuvax therapy after 2.4 and 5.8 years, respectively, and were without evidence of disease progression. Nine of the 10 living patients had stage IIIb NSCLC upon entry to the trial, while one had stage IV disease. Six of the 10 living patients had a complete response to their first-line chemotherapy or chemo-radiation, while four patients had stable disease. The remaining six of the 16 patients discontinued Stimuvax after 2.0 to 5.1 years of treatment as a result of disease progression and are deceased.

Prolonged treatment with Stimuvax was well-tolerated in this trial. The most common treatment-related adverse events were injection-site reactions, which tended to diminish after the first year of treatment. There was no evidence of autoimmune reactions with prolonged use.

The Phase 2b trial of Stimuvax in patients with stage IIIb/IV NSCLC was conducted by Oncothyreon, with patient enrollment concluding in 2003. Long-term follow-up of these patients was conducted by Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, which assumed the clinical development of Stimuvax in 2007. Merck KGaA is responsible for the world-wide development and commercialization of Stimuvax under license from Oncothyreon and is currently conducting Phase 3 trials of Stimuvax in both NSCLC and breast cancer.

About Stimuvax

Stimuvax is an investigational therapeutic cancer vaccine designed to induce an immune response to cancer cells that express MUC1, a glycoprotein antigen widely expressed on common cancers. MUC1 is over-expressed on many cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. Stimuvax is thought to work by stimulating the body's immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells expressing MUC1.

Merck KGaA currently is conducting a global Phase 3 trial of Stimuvax known as START (Stimulating Targeted Antigenic Responses To NSCLC).