Canine pancreatic cancer

Business Editors

CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2000

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (TSE:ONC.) today presented results of their canine studies at the Veterinary Cancer Society's 20th Annual Conference in Pacific Grove, California.

The presentation - "Evaluation of Reovirus Therapy for Spontaneously Occurring Canine Tumors" - includes the results of the previously reported canine pilot study in addition to canine tumor biopsy studies that examine the range of applicability of the virus against a range of indications. A copy of the abstract is available on the Company's website: www.oncolyticsbiotech.com

"The continued interest and support from the veterinary community has been gratifying," said Dr. Matt Coffey, Vice President, Product Development. "We are pleased both with the continued progress towards a veterinary application, as well as the progress of our primary focus - completion of a successful Phase I human clinical study with REOLYSIN(R)."

Oncolytics is a Calgary-based biotechnology company whose focus is the development of the reovirus known as REOLYSIN(R) as a potential cancer therapeutic. The human reovirus infects and kills cancer cells with an activated Ras pathway. Ras is an important component of a pathway controlling normal growth and differentiation of a cell, and when activated, may account for a large proportion of all human tumors. Researchers believe that targeting this pathway could have broad potential in the treatment of many cancers. Oncolytics researchers demonstrated that reovirus was selectively able to kill cancer cells with this particular activation and successfully demonstrated that the virus could kill human cancer cells in vitro derived from breast, prostate, pancreatic and brain tumors, as well as being able to treat tumors successfully in a number of animal models. Oncolytics initiated its Phase I clinical trial on REOLYSIN(R) in June 2000.

This release contains certain forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, delays, uncertainties and other factors not under the Company's control which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performance or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements.