Somatix lives on

With the loss of Hoechst Marion Roussel Inc. as a partner for its AIDS gene therapy program, Cell Genesys Inc.'s clinical programs now consist entirely of the GVAX cancer vaccines it acquired through its purchase of Somatix Therapy Corp. for $85 million in stock in 1997.

CEGE (Foster City, Calif.) does not plan to conduct additional AIDS gene therapy trials on its own after reacquiring worldwide rights to the product last week from HMR (Kansas City, Mo.). The product introduces the CD4zeta HIV receptor into patient T cells for reinfusion and targeting of HIV-infected cells (see B3). ...