By John Williams
The Houston Chronicle
October 29, 2000

The common stock price of the cancer gene therapy company Introgen Therapeutics Inc. has increased 40 percent since its initial public offering Oct. 12.

That means a tidy profit for three people associated with the University of Texas System, which granted the Austin-based company the license to use gene therapy developed at University of Texas-M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Former UT System Chancellor William Cunningham and current regents Tom Loeffler and Charles Miller own stock in the company. The stock was selling for $11.25 a share when regular trading on the NASDAQ closed Friday, up from its initial public offering of $8 per share.

State and federal records indicate Cunningham received options on 1,867 shares of Introgen stock after he stepped down as the university system chancellor on June 1. He joined the Introgen board of directors July 10. His shares were worth $21,003.75 Friday.

Loeffler received stock options on 10,000 shares after joining Introgen's board in 1997. He resigned his seat on the Introgen board after his stock holdings were reported.

Miller owns at least 10,000 shares of Introgen, worth at least $112,500.

The university also will benefit from the licensing agreement. The UT system is to get 1.5 percent of net sales, advance payments Introgen receives from sublicenses and about 1.21 million shares of common stock in the company.

After completing clinical trials, Introgen hopes to market the drug, which is designed to restore or replace genetic abnormalities associated with cancer.

The UT Board of Regents awarded Austin-based Introgen a license in 1994 when Cunningham was chancellor and Loeffler was a regent. Miller became a regent in 1999.

UT officials say the three stockholders didn't violate university policy or state law, which allows a regent to be a director of a company that does business with the system as long as the regent doesn't get more than 5 percent of its stock.

None of the three owns 5 percent of the stock.