VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Sept. 5, 2012) - biOasis Technologies Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BTI) announced today that a key animal study in its BT2111 oncology program, showed that BT2111, biOasis' conjugate of trastuzumab (Herceptin®) designed to treat brain metatastsis of HER2+ breast cancer, arrests the growth tumors in a xenograft model of human breast carcinoma. The human tumor xenograft model is accepted industry-wide as a gold standard for assessing the performance of new and emerging drugs to treat cancer. The model is described here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2562196/.
Briefly, a highly aggressive human breast carcinoma was transplanted subcutaneoulsy into recipient animals. The animals were treated twice per week for 6 weeks with either BT2111, Herceptin® or a placebo. Each week the tumor volumes were measured. In the placebo control animals, the tumors increased in size by 400% over baseline. In both the BT2111 and Herceptin® treated groups, the tumor growth was completely halted. Further, both Herceptin® and BT2111 were well tolerated with no apparent signs of toxicity.
"Over the past year the Herceptin®-BT2111 conjugate program has delivered some exceptional results for biOasis," says Rob Hutchison, CEO. "The next vital step for us in our BT2111 program, was to assess its performance in this cancer xenograft study. In this study, we were able to compare directly the Herceptin®-BT2111 conjugate to Herceptin® alone. The results demonstate that the Herceptin®-BT2111 conjugate is as active as, and at several timepoints exceeded Herceptin®, in stopping tumor growth. Herceptin® is a potentailly life-saving treatment that reduces the recurrance of HER2+ breast cancer among women undergoing chemotherapy. Unfortunately, this drug is excluded from the brain and is thus ineffective for treating women with brain metastasis of HER2+ breast cancer. We have announed previously that a large percentage of intravenously administered Herceptin®-BT2111 conjugate enters the brains of experimental animals. Our next step is to demonstrate in collaboration with Texas Tech University that our Herceptin®-BT2111 conjugate is efficacious in stopping the growth of brain metastases of breast cancer." For further information on this, click this video link "xenograft" on the biOasis home page - http://www.bioasis.ca/
ABOUT BT2111 - BT2111 is a conjugate between biOasis' Transcend brain delivery vector and trastuzumab (trade name of Herceptin®), a humanized monoclonal antibody used clinically in the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer. It is reported that up to 30% of HER2+ breast cancer patients develop brain metastasis for which therapeutic options are limited. Because of its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, biOasis is researching the potential of BT2111 for treatment of HER2+ metastatic breast cancer in the brain.
Herceptin® is a registered trademark of Roche/Genentech.
ABOUT BIOASIS
biOasis Technologies Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Based on Transcend, biOasis proprietary brain delivery platform, the Company is focused on creating new drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier to address unmet medical needs in the treatment of brain diseases such as neurodegeneration, metastatic cancer and metabolic diseases. biOasis trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "BTI". For more information about the Company please visit www.bioasis.ca.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 or forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities legislation that may not be based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "believe", "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect" and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, events or developments, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, events or developments express or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such factors include, among others, our stage of development, lack of any product revenues, additional capital requirements, risk associated with the completion of clinical trials and obtaining regulatory approval to market our products, the ability to protect our intellectual property, dependence on collaborative partners and the prospects for negotiating additional corporate collaborations or licensing arrangements and their timing. Specifically, certain risks and uncertainties that could cause such actual events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from any future events or results expressed or implied by such statements and information include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties that: we may not be able to successfully develop and obtain regulatory approval for p97 as a Physician's Aid to Diagnose Alzheimer's, or future products in our targeted corporate objectives; our future operating results are uncertain and likely to fluctuate; we may not be able to raise additional capital; we may not be successful in establishing additional corporate collaborations or licensing arrangements; we may not be able to establish marketing and the costs of launching our products may be greater than anticipated; we have no experience in commercial manufacturing; we may face unknown risks related to intellectual property matters; we face increased competition from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; and other factors as described in detail in our filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements and information, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are based on our current expectations and we undertake no obligation to revise or update such forward- looking statements and information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
Rob Hutchison Chairman & CEO
"Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."
Contact Information:
Rob Hutchison
Chairman & CEO
(778) 383.3280
rob@bioasis.ca
www.bioasis.ca