JX-594: Good News from San Francisco?

A co-worker said he heard about this on the news last night and I had to look it up. Apparently, this San Francisco-based biotech firm has inked an agreement with a South Korean company to develop and

The company's website (see excerpt and link below) details the logic of their treatment, and it sounds facinating. Check out their Products and FAQ pages as well.

I Googled some key words and very little comes up other than new agencies just reposting Jennerex's company-produced press release. Why isn't this bigger news? Are commercialized cancer cures a dime a dozen and the public just doesn't know it? This would seem like big and hopeful news.

Excerpt from their press release:
JX-594 is an oncolytic virus, a new class of cancer therapeutics that utilizes a novel mechanism of action which is expected to be effective against cancers resistant to conventional surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. JX-594 is a vaccinia virus that has been engineered to infect, multiply in and kill cancer cells while leaving neighboring healthy cells unharmed. In addition to direct killing of cancer cells by viral replication, JX-594 expresses a transgene GM-CSF which stimulates the immune system to recognize and destroy the cancer cells, thereby, attacking tumors through multiple mechanisms of action. The results of a Phase I study for treatment of metastatic melanoma showed good tolerability and evidence of anti-tumor effects. A further Phase I study is currently underway in South Korea for treatment of liver cancer and a Phase II study is planned for the treatment of melanoma.

Oncolytic Viruses: Revolutionary New Cancer Treatment: "JENNEREX designs, creates and develops targeted, armed oncolytic virotherapy products. During the product design process, we initially select the optimal virus and strain based on the biology we want for specific large market tumor targets. We subsequently engineer the virus products to target genetic pathways that are critical in the vast majority of human cancers. This results in enhanced safety and a large 'therapeutic index' (differential cell killing) between cancer tissue and normal tissues in the body. We refer to this method as targeting cancer's Achilles' Heel since these same genetic changes in cancer that support growth of our viruses are also critical to cancer progression itself. The primary mechanism-of-action for our products is virus replication-dependent oncolysis ('onco' cancer, 'lysis' cell destruction). This is a novel and unique cancer-destruction mechanism that does not, in contrast to the majority of cancer treatments, rely on cancer cell 'suicide' (apoptosis); cancer cell destruction is therefore not passive but active."