Epistem to Provide Preclinical Efficacy Testing Services for Exponential Biotherapies

MANCHESTER, UK--(Marketwire - April 1, 2008) - Epistem (LSE: EHP) announced today that Exponential Biotherapies, Inc. (EBI) of Virginia, USA, have contracted Epistem to provide their specialised preclinical efficacy testing services for agents likely to protect the gastrointestinal tract against radiation damage. The first compound that Epistem will assess is EBI's lead candidate drug, EA-230, which is a small peptide immunoregulator, which has shown the potential to treat (minimise) radiation insult and could therefore be administered following a terrorist nuclear attack to reduce the level of intestinal related radiation sickness.

Epistem is a world leader in supplying assays that measure qualitatively and quantitatively the effects of radiation damage on the stem cells in the gut. Epistem's assays show the effects of agents developed to protect the very sensitive cells of the gut. These assays were chosen by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medical Countermeasures against Radiological and Nuclear Threats (MCART) programme and Epistem also works with a number of pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs candidates with the potential to treat mucositis, the erosion of the lining of the mouth and gut, which is a very common side effect of radiation therapy used during cancer treatment. The assays provide quantitative and mechanism of action data to assess the efficacy of novel drug candidates, and help define optimum dose scheduling for progression to the clinical phases in this very important area of oncology supportive care.

Dr Zsolt Harsanyi, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Exponential Biotherapies, Inc. said "Epistem's well established assays and unrivalled expertise in the field of gastrointestinal epithelial radiation toxicity are extremely valuable to us in confirming the potential of EA-230 as a therapeutic treatment for radionuclear attack".

Dr Catherine Booth, head of Epistem's contract research division commented: "We are looking forward to working with EBI to assess the therapeutic potential of EA-230. If it is able to improve gastrointestinal wound healing following radiation exposure it may have widespread applications in biodefence, oncology supportive care (the area for which we first developed and validated these assays), and possibly in other related intestinal wound healing situations, such as inflammatory bowel disease."

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Contact Information: For further information, please contact: Matthew Walls +44 (0)161 606 7258 CEO Epistem Ltd. Mike Wort / Anna Dunphy +44 (0) 207 861 3838 Financial PR/IR De Facto Communications