Genedrive Regulatory News (GDR)

24 Jul 2008 08:54

For Release 24th July 2008

EPISTEM ANNOUNCE COLLABORATION WITH HUMANTICS CORPORATION

Epistem (LSE:EHP), the UK biotechnology and contract research company announced today that it has been selected by Humanetics Corporation of Minnesota, USA, to provide specialised preclinical efficacy testing services for agents likely to protect the intestinal epithelium from subsequent radiation damage. Under an appropriation award to Humanetics from the US Department of Defense, over the next 12 months Epistem will screen potential drug candidates that may ultimately be adopted by the Armed Forces as prophylactic agents to be taken where there is risk of radiation exposure or nuclear attack. Such agents should reduce the level of intestinal related radiation sickness and improve morbidity and mortality.

Epistem is an established provider of similar assays for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medical Countermeasures against Radiological and Nuclear Threats (MCART) and also in the area of oncology supportive care. The assays provide quantitative and mechanistic data to assess the efficacy of novel drug candidates, and help define optimum dose scheduling.

John L. Zenk, MD, the Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Humanetics said "The tests performed by Epistem should identify agents that will reduce the levels of ulceration, diarrhoea, anorexia and ideally also fatalities caused by radiation exposure. Epistem currently provides the industry standard systems for measuring the levels of gastrointestinal damage and are enormously experienced in this area"

Dr Catherine Booth, head of Epistem's contract research division commented: "This project perfectly complements our work with MCART. The current contract with Humanetics will test agents that may be taken prior to radiation exposure, in situations of high risk, whereas MCART are evaluating agents that mitigate damage following exposure. Both types of drugs also have therapeutic applications in oncology supportive care, the area for which we first developed and validated these assays, and possibly in other related intestinal wound healing situations, such as inflammatory bowel disease."

  For further information, please contact:

Matthew Walls +44 (0)161 606 7258

Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)7887 501998

Epistem Plc.

Mike Wort / Anna Dunphy +44 (0) 207 861 3838

Financial PR/IR

De Facto Communications

Notes to Editors:

About Humanetics

Humanetics is a privately-held clinical-stage pharmaceutical company headquartered near Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Company is focused on the rapid discovery, development and commercialization of drugs for the prevention and treatment of diseases in categories with urgent and unmet needs. The Company has several proprietary compounds in preclinical and/or clinical stages of development in the areas of bioterrorism, Alzheimer's disease and obesity. For more information, visit: http://www.humaneticscorp.com .

About Epistem

Epistem is a biotechnology company commercialising its expertise in epithelial stem cells in the areas of oncology, gastrointestinal diseases and dermatological applications. Epistem develops innovative therapeutics and biomarkers and provides contract research services to drug development companies. The Group's expertise is focused on the regulation of adult stem cells located in epithelial tissue, which includes the gastrointestinal tract, skin, hair follicles, breast and prostate. Epistem does not conduct research in the areas of embryonic stem cells or stem cell transplantation.

Epistem operates three distinct business divisions, Contract Research Services, Novel Therapies and Biomarkers.

Contract Research Services

Contract Research Services provides specialised preclinical efficacy testing primarily for drug development companies on a 'fee for service' basis. This division on a standalone basis is cash generative and profitable with a seven-year track record of providing testing services to over 90 international company clients primarily in Europe and the United States.

Novel Therapies

Novel Therapies is focused on developing its own innovative therapeutics. Through its discovery platform, Novel Therapies has identified 250 potential drug candidates, of which a subset are undergoing further evaluation and characterisation as stem cell regulators for the Group's emerging drug development pipeline. 

Biomarkers 

The emerging biomarker technology leverages the Company's knowledge of the behaviour of epithelial cells and drug-induced gene expression change to measure drug effects during treatment. Changes in gene expression can be detected within hours and at low levels of chemotherapy or radiation. The highly sensitive Biomarker technology is based on using mRNA extracted from the bulb of cells at the base of a single hair follicle as a minimally invasive process to measure gene expression changes in epithelial tissue. 

Combined Business Model

Epistem is exploiting its combined business model to advance its own therapeutic candidates to late preclinical stage development. The business model integrates the discovery efforts of Novel Therapies with the efficacy testing assays of its Contract Research Services Division, to identify and characterise new drug candidates. Revenues generated by Contract Research Services and Biomarkers will assist in offsetting Novel Therapies' investment requirements for the discovery and development of its lead therapeutics. The Directors believe that licensing partnerships will be forthcoming across the therapeutics, biomarkers and discovery platform in 2008.