VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 6, 2014) - BIOASIS TECHNOLOGIES INC. (OTCQX:BIOAF)(TSX VENTURE:BTI), a pioneering biopharmaceutical company focused on overcoming the limitations of therapeutic drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier, has shown that a newly discovered peptide vector form of Transcend - Transcendpep - effectively delivers siRNA across the blood-brain barrier and into brain cells. This is an exciting development for potential treatment of a variety of brain disorders. RNA interference (RNAi) of gene function can be triggered by small single-stranded RNA molecules (small-interfering RNA; siRNA), which function to silence target genes in a sequence-specific manner. Therapeutics based on siRNA have been heralded to have the potential to reverse and eradicate human disease by targeting specific genes that cause or modify disease outcome. However, since siRNAs on their own do not cross the blood-brain barrier the targeting of genes within the brain was not assumed to be achievable. biOasis has now demonstrated delivery of siRNA across the blood-brain barrier using its new peptide vector, Transcendpep. After systemic injection, siRNA coupled to Transcendpep was shown to shuttle into the brain and became localized within brain cells. Since a variety of different siRNAs (specific for different disease-associated genes) can be delivered, this is a significant achievement for the Company and for the field of molecular therapeutics. Transcendpep-siRNA constructs thus become a potential cornerstone technology for development of new therapeutics for brain disorders, including, cancers of the brain, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neuropsychiatric diseases, and for a variety of neuromuscular diseases, pain, and infections.
"RNAi is a promising and novel therapeutic approach for treatment of many CNS diseases. The successful delivery of Transcendpep-siRNA conjugates to the brain is therefore a significant advance and provides the foundation for exploring the potential of siRNA-based therapeutics for a host of different diseases of the Central Nervous System," says biOasis Founding Scientist Professor Wilf Jefferies.
About Transcend & Transcendpep
Transcend and Transcendpep (a family of peptides derived from Transcend) offer 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 disease. The blood-brain barrier represents the single greatest challenge in treating diseases and other disorders within the brain. Diseases such as cancer are readily treated in many areas of the body, but drugs designed to treat cancer and other brain disorders simply cannot penetrate the blood- brain barrier. The ability to more effectively permeate the blood-brain 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 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 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 that 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
Investor Relations Contact:
Liolios Group, Inc.
Ron Both
Senior Managing Director
949-574-3860
BTI@liolios.com