Application to double unique study with Diamyd’s diabetes vaccine submitted to the Swedish MPA


The research group at Lund University, that runs DiAPREV-IT, a clinical study
evaluating if the diabetes vaccine Diamyd® can prevent or delay the onset of
type 1 diabetes in children at high risk of developing the disease, has applied
to the Swedish Medical Products Agency to expand the study with an additional 50
children. The first part of the study, which also comprises 50 children, is
fully recruited and results are expected in 2015.
“To expand this unique study is important as the chance to demonstrate a
statistically significant effect of Diamyd’s diabetes vaccine increases the more
children that are enrolled in the study,“ says Peter Zerhouni, President and CEO
of Diamyd Medical. “Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong and serious disease and if it
could be prevented or delayed it would avoid a lot of worrying, suffering and
costs for the children and their families as well as for the society. There is
no treatment available today that can prevent or delay the disease process.”

DiAPREV-IT, which was started in 2009, is a double-blind and placebo-controlled
clinical study which to date has enrolled 50 children from four years of age.
Half of the children have been treated with the diabetes vaccine Diamyd® and
half with placebo (a non-active substance). The children are currently in follow
-up and the first results of the study are expected in 2015.

The Sponsor and Principal Investigator of the study, Helena Elding Larsson,
pediatrician in Malmoe and researcher at Lund University in Sweden, has now
applied to the Swedish Medical Products Agency to enroll an additional 50
children at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes. In the expanded part of the
study two thirds of the children are planned to receive active diabetes vaccine
and one third placebo. When the 50 new children have been in the study for three
years the results of all 100 children are planned to be pooled and analyzed.

”The scientific value of the study will be much enhanced if we can double the
number of participants,” says Doctor Helena Elding Larsson. “Also, it is
fantastic to be able to offer something to these children that we know, by
analyzing their genetic risk and biomarkers in their blood, are at high risk of
developing type 1 diabetes. Half of them are expected to present with the
disease within only five years. Just delaying the disease with the help of the
diabetes vaccine would represent a medical breakthrough.”

In addition to the DiAPREV-IT study described above, the enrollment of patients
to another researcher initiated Phase II study with the diabetes vaccine Diamyd®
is underway at around ten pediatric diabetes clinics across Sweden. In that
study, called DIABGAD-1, children and adolescents recently diagnosed with type 1
diabetes are treated with the diabetes vaccine Diamyd® in combination with
vitamin D and ibuprofen. That study aims to investigate whether the treatment
can preserve the body’s capacity to make insulin. Some insulin producing
capacity reduces the risk of both acute and long-term diabetes complications.
The first results from DIABGAD-1 are expected to be presented in 2015.

About Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune form of diabetes that ordinarily occurs in
children. The disease is caused by an autoimmune attack, which means that the
body’s own immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the
pancreas that control the blood sugar. To survive with type 1 diabetes intensive
treatment with insulin is needed every day for life, either through injections
or an insulin pump, and the blood sugar must be checked through blood samples 7
-10 times a day. Both too much and too little insulin can lead to
unconsciousness and even death. Type 1 diabetes can also cause serious long-term
complications, such as blindness, cardiovascular disease, nephropathy and
neuropathy. Today there is no cure for type 1 diabetes and the disease cannot be
prevented.

It is estimated that approximately 80,000 persons per year are diagnosed with
type 1 diabetes in the US and Europe alone. The Nordic countries have the
highest incidence of type 1 diabetes in the world. In Sweden two children are
diagnosed with type 1 diabetes every day.
For further information, please contact:
Peter Zerhouni, President and CEO Diamyd Medical AB
Phone: +46 8 661 00 26. E-mail: press@diamyd.com
About Diamyd Medical
Diamyd Medical is a Swedish diabetes company. The Company’s primary development
project consists of the GAD-based diabetes vaccine Diamyd®for the treatment and
prevention of autoimmune diabetes. Two Swedish researcher-initiated Phase II
studies with Diamyd®are ongoing. One study evaluates whether the diabetes
vaccine can prevent type 1 diabetes in children who are at high risk of
developing the disease, while the other study evaluates whether Diamyd®in
combination with vitamin D and ibuprofen can preserve the body's own ability to
regulate the blood sugar level in children and adolescents newly diagnosed with
type 1 diabetes.

In May 2013 the Company concluded an exclusive licensing agreement with the
University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) relating to a patent portfolio
for the therapeutic use of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and GABA receptor
agonists for the treatment and prevention of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and
other inflammation-related conditions, such as metabolic syndrome, rheumatoid
arthritis and allergies.

Diamyd Medical also has holdings in the gene therapy company Periphagen
Holdings, Inc. (US).

Diamyd Medical’s Series B share is traded on NASDAQ OMX First North under the
ticker DMYD B. Remium Nordic AB is the Company’s Certified Adviser. Further
information is available on the Company’s website: www.diamyd.com.

Diamyd Medical AB (publ)
Kungsgatan 29, SE-111 56 Stockholm, Sweden. Phone: +46 8 661 00 26, Fax: +46 8
661 63 68
E-mail: info@diamyd.com. Reg. no.: 556242-3797.

Attachments

02164123.pdf