How NOT to Write a Biotech Press Release: Just Ask Epeius

(MoneyWatch)  If there is one cardinal sin in biotech communications, it is hype. Telling late-night TV viewers you've made a miracle toaster is one thing; telling desperate and dying patients you've made a miracle cancer drug is quite another.
Apparently, no one told Epeius Biotechnologies. The little biotech issued a press release last week revealing "more stunning results" seen with Phase II cancer drug Rexin-G. In the company's words:

Rexin-G has once again accomplished what standard cancer treatments and even much-touted biologics have failed to do: that is, to bring forth the benefits of remission in otherwise intractable metastatic cancers.

The release goes on to describe three case studies, one in which a Catholic priest was "bedridden and in withering pain" from prostate cancer until Rexin-G made his inoperable primary tumor disappear.

Why Epeius chose to discuss case studies -- which don't have much relevance in the randomized-clinical-trial driven world of FDA decisions -- in a colorfully-worded press is puzzling. The company is privately-held, so it couldn't have been trying to pump its stock. But this is not an isolated offense: a second press release last week touted "the first real breakthrough for pancreatic cancer seen in years," and a trip down Epeius' press release archives reveals:

Rexin-G is the world's smallest hero!

and, my personal favorite,

Epeius Biotechnologies draws the sword of targeted gene delivery from the stone of chemistry and physics

The sad thing is that Rexin-G does look like it has some solid activity. Phase I/II data published in Nature's Molecular Therapy this month showed that gemcitabine-resistant pancreatic cancer patients treated with a low dose had median overall survival of 4.3 months and none survived a year, while the high dose resulted in median overall survival of 9.2 months and one year survival of 28.9 percent. But it's hard to see the efficacy through the haze of hype.

Sword in the Stone photo by Flickr user Loren Javier, CC.