Contact Information: Contacts: David Carey Lazar Partners Ltd. 212-867-1768 Nitzi Avro Aposense +972-544-660-555
NST NeuroSurvival Technologies Completes $13.3 Million Financing, Changes Name to Aposense Ltd.
| Source: Aposense
PETACH-TIKVA, ISRAEL--(Marketwire - August 20, 2008) - NST NeuroSurvival Technologies Ltd.
(NST), the leading developer of agents that target apoptosis (programmed
cell death) for both molecular imaging and therapy, today announced the
completion of a $13.3 million financing. The company also announced that
it has changed its name to Aposense Ltd.
In a two-part financing, Aposense Ltd. raised $6 million in September 2007
and now concluded the second part of additional $7.3 million. A prominent
group of existing shareholders participated in the financing by exercising
outstanding warrants, in exchange for shares of Aposense. Participating
shareholders included, among others, Zeigler Meditech Equity Partners LP,
Pontifax LP, Docor International, Federman Holdings, Technorov, Bargal R&D
Investment, Phoenix Insurance Co., Polar Investments and Clal Biotechnology
Industries.
"Our new name, Aposense, reflects our expanded mission to improve patient
care through both molecular imaging and targeted therapy based on our
apoptosis targeting technology," said Yoram Ashery, CEO of Aposense Ltd.
"This $13 million financing will help fulfill this mission by funding
operations into Phase 3 clinical trials of our ML-10 compound, for
molecular imaging of apoptosis. I would like to thank the shareholders who
participated in this financing for their contribution and continued
support."
Since inception, Aposense Ltd. has raised more than $40 million, including
the current financing.
About Aposense®
Aposense Ltd. is a molecular imaging and drug development company, focused
on introducing novel imaging and therapeutic agents based on targeting of
cells undergoing apoptosis. The Aposense technology utilizes a novel,
proprietary class of rationally-designed, small molecules developed by
Aposense that selectively identify and accumulate within apoptotic (dying)
cells in vivo. Apoptosis (programmed cell death) plays a role in many
diseases across numerous clinical areas, including oncology, neurology and
cardiology. Molecular imaging with APOSENSE enables real-time visualization
of the biological activity of disease, its onset, change in course and
response to therapy, and to personalize treatment for the individual
patient. Therapeutic applications of APOSENSE technology in pre-clinical
development include anticancer therapy which uses apoptotic cells in tumors
as targets for specific delivery of cytotoxic compounds into the tumor. For
additional information, visit http://www.aposense.com
About Apoptosis
Apoptosis is a genetically-controlled program of cell death, inherent in
any nucleated cell in the body and therefore often referred to also as
"cell suicide." Upon activation, the apoptotic program executes a
well-characterized sequence of events by which the cell undergoes
fragmentation and elimination by macrophages, without damaging the
surrounding tissue. Apoptosis is a universal process of cell death and it
plays a role in most medical disorders, making it one of the important
processes of cell biology. For example, apoptosis has important roles in
oncology, both in the process of tumor growth, as well as in treatment with
most therapies which aim to induce death in cancer cells. Targeting cells
undergoing apoptosis, for imaging or delivering therapy, can therefore have
broad clinical applications.
About Molecular Imaging
Molecular imaging is an emerging field which aims to visualize
non-invasively biological processes in-vivo. The ability to image
disease-related biological processes may allow to detect disease early,
characterize it better and to personalize treatment by real-time monitoring
of its therapeutic effect. Molecular imaging depends on special molecules
(probes) that can selectively target these biological processes, while
carrying an imaging moiety for visualization, such as 18F or other positron
emitting radio-isotopes that can be visualized by positron emission
tomography (PET).