VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 27, 2014) - biOasis Technologies Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BTI)(OTCQX:BIOAF), a pioneering biopharmaceutical company focused on overcoming the limitations of therapeutic drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier, has received notices of allowance from the European and Canadian Patent offices for its patent application titled, "Use of P97 as an Enzyme Delivery System for the Delivery of Therapeutic Lysosomal Enzymes".
The claims of the patent cover methods of using biOasis' brain penetrating drug delivery vector, Transcend, coupled with a lysosomal storage disease enzyme for the treatment of lysosomal storage diseases (LSD). Specifically, the Transcend-coupled enzymes claimed in the patent allowance include those that are used clinically as enzyme replacement therapies to treat lysosomal storage diseases, such as Hunter Syndrome, Hurler syndrome and others.
"These patent allowances in Canada and Europe complement our existing issued LSD-related U.S. patent and mark another major step towards international exclusivity in the rare disease market," said Rob Hutchison, CEO. "We believe it helps validates our Transcend vector technology for treating LSD and particularly its special ability to deliver therapeutic compounds across the blood-brain barrier."
biOasis' corresponding LSD therapeutic patent issued in the United States on October 1, 2013 as US 8,546,319.
A patent allowance represents the official communications from the responsible patent authorities that an application will be issued upon final review and payment of the issuance fee.
About Lysosomal Storage Diseases
Lysosomal storage diseases are inherited metabolic disorders caused by a deficiency in lysosomal enzymes, of which approximately 50 have been described to date. These diseases usually affect children, many of whom die within several years of birth and some following years of dealing with symptoms of the disease that may include developmental delay, movement disorders, seizures, dementia, deafness and blindness. The most effective therapeutic strategy used is replacement of the missing enzyme. However, no currently approved therapeutic enzyme is able to effectively treat the effects of these diseases on the central nervous system. Despite the limitations of existing products, market revenues have exceeded $2 billion for each of the past three years.
About Transcend
Transcend offers the creation of a new class of drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier to address unmet medical needs in the treatment of brain metastatic cancer and other brain disorders, such as neurodegeneration and metabolic diseases, including lysosomal storage diseases. The blood-brain barrier represents the single greatest challenge in treating diseases and other disorders within the brain. Diseases such as cancer and lysosomal storage diseases are readily treated in many areas of the body, but drugs designed to treat them simply cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier.
Over the past five years, biOasis has developed a unique and novel blood-brain barrier vector called Transcend. Trials in animal models have shown that Transcend can deliver Herceptin®, a chemotherapeutic used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer, in sufficient quantity to the brain to significantly reduce the number of HER2-positive metastatic brain tumors. Further, after only four treatments, the remaining tumor masses were reduced in size by an average of 58%.
Also in animal models, the company has demonstrated that the Transcend vector could deliver a 4-to-8- fold increase of a variety of different therapeutic biologics across the blood-brain-tumor barrier versus the compounds on their own.
The ability to more effectively permeate both the blood-brain and the blood-tumor barrier opens the door for the creation of new drugs designed to treat a wide variety of neurological diseases and disorders. Additionally, Transcend offers the potential to take existing clinically approved drugs that are near their end of patent life and extend them.
About biOasis
biOasis Technologies Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Richmond, BC, 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 disorders such as neurodegeneration, metastatic cancer and metabolic diseases. biOasis trades on the OTCQX under the symbol "BIOAF" and 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: products we develop may not succeed in preclinical or clinical trials, 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
Investor Relations Contact: Liolios Group, Inc.
Ron Both
Senior Managing Director
949-574-3860
BTI@liolios.com