It also reminds us that Ribozyme, like every biotech firm with strong fundamentals, is involved in the new drug discovery process. Although marketing of ProstaScint began three years ago, the firm looked as if it was unsuccessful in marketing it, despite its accuracy and reliability. The reason was that some physicians and insurance carriers have been treating this diagnostic breakthrough as an experimental procedure. With the publication of the NCCN guidelines, ProstaScint is well positioned as a mainstream diagnostic tool for prostate cancer. In other words the NCCN guidelines, which are the most widely recognized and used guidelines in cancer management are recommending that ProstaScint be considered in the clinical evaluation of the majority of men who exhibit evidence of recurrent prostate cancer and of those patients with newly diagnosed with the disease.
Physicians tend to follow guidelines in the diagnosis and treatment of serious sicknesses.
Because they feel more comfortable abiding by recommendations that are based on years of data research and analysis. In addition to its capability in identifying the extent of prostate cancer in newly diagnosed Patients at high risk for metastatic spread of the disease, ProstaScint has been found extremely useful in diagnosing recurrent prostate cancer. Cytogen has three marketed products. In addition, through its wholly owned subsidiary, AxCell,, the firm has become a very prestigious member of the drug discovery group through its indispensable, extremely fast and accurate detection of protein interactions, a very important and complicated process that cause different chronic diseases and cancer. As we mentioned several times in the newsletter and fax letter, this firm's past handicap was caused by two factors.