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Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) Granted U.S. Patent for New Potent Antitubulin Agents With Anti-Cancer Activity

Posted on: Monday, 10 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

SEATTLE, April 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) (Nasdaq: CTIC; MTAX) announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent for a new class of small molecule antitubulin agents with potent antiproliferative and tumor killing activity. CT-45099 is the first lead optimized agent from this class of compounds to advance into preclinical testing. The patent, owned by CTI's European subsidiary, Cell Therapeutics Europe S.r.l. (CTI-Europe), covers analogs of CT-45099 and will expire in April 2022. CT-45099 is protected by a U.S. and European patent already granted to CTI-Europe.

Unlike the marketed taxane-based cancer drugs, Taxol(R) (paclitaxel) and Taxotere(R) (docetaxel), or even investigational new drugs like epothilones, which kill cells by stabilizing microtubules and preventing their disassembly, this class of agents blocks tubulin assembly and destabilizes microtubules during cell mitosis. Therefore, this class of agents has anti-tumor activity distinct from these other drugs. In addition, this new class of antitubulin agents is not susceptible to multi-drug resistance, one of the most common mechanisms by which cancer cells develop resistance to standard chemotherapies. CT-45099 and its analogs inhibit in vitro the growth of colon, lung, gastric, and prostate cancer cell lines, including cancer cells resistant to paclitaxel or doxorubicin treatment.

"This patent, and the new class of agents covered within, highlights our ability to take a well known target in cancer drug development, like tubulin, and apply our medicinal chemistry expertise to develop a novel class of anti-cancer agents that may possess superior anti-tumor activity over commonly used tubulin-stabilizing chemotherapy drugs," noted Alberto Bernareggi, Ph.D., Managing Director of CTI-Europe.

About Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Headquartered in Seattle, CTI is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing an integrated portfolio of oncology products aimed at making cancer more treatable. For additional information, please visit http://www.cticseattle.com/.

This press release 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 forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements about future risks and uncertainties that could affect the development of CTI's tubulin binding compounds. These risks include, but are not limited to, preclinical, clinical, and sales and marketing developments in the biopharmaceutical industry in general, and in particular including, without limitation, the determinations by regulatory, patent and administrative governmental authorities, competitive factors, technological developments, costs of developing, producing and selling CTI's tubulin binding compounds, 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, and 10-Q. CTI is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

CONTACT: investors, Leah Grant, +1-206-282-7100, or fax,+1-206-272-4434, or invest@ctiseattle.com, orhttp://www.cticseattle.com/investors.htm, or media, Susan Callahan, +1-206-272-4472,or fax, +1-206-272-4434, or media@ctiseattle.com, orhttp://www.cticseattle.com/media.htm

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

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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