Progenitor Inc. said Monday that it has licensed a family of genetherapy vectors, giving the Columbus, Ohio, company greaterflexibility in potentially treating a variety of conditions.Progenitor, a subsidiary of Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc., licensedthe vectors (or delivery systems) from the Albert Einstein College ofMedicine in New York, which will receive an undisclosed license feeand royalty based on future sales."The vectors give us significant flexibility for establishing conditionsin which gene therapy will be administered," William Boni, executivedirector of corporate communications for Interneuron, told BioWorld."The key here is to be able to offer gene therapy on both a long-termand short-term basis depending on the nature of the disease."Progenitor now has vectors that can be classified as episomal, inducibleand externally activated. Episomal vectors do not integrate into cellnuclei and can deliver genes into both dividing and non-dividing cells.Inducible vectors deliver genes that remain quiet until triggered byevents such as viral infection of the cell. And externally activatedvectors can be controlled by an on-off switch in the form of medicationadministered on demand. _ Jim Shrine

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