Amarantus BioSciences and Generex Biotechnology Announce Collaboration to Treat Pre-Diabetes

Amarantus BioSciences, and Generex Biotechnology, Inc. have announced that the companies have selected the development of a MANF-based therapeutic for the treatment of the beta cell destruction at the root of diabetes as the second program for their joint research collaboration announced on May 31, 2011.

The first collaboration program announced on June 8, 2011 is for the development of a MANF-based diagnostic test to identify a sub-population at risk of developing Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.

"Taken together with the MANF-based early diabetes detection diagnostic, the potential therapeutic-diagnostic combination would represent a major step forward in the ability for physicians to manage the health of those persons most at risk of developing diabetes," said Dr. James Anderson, Senior Scientific Advisor and Director of Generex.

Dr. Anderson continued, "The development of a MANF-based therapeutic that would be administered using Generex' proprietary RapidMist™ technology, and potentially be used in combination with Oral-lyn™, would represent a significant, new competitive advantage over other therapeutic interventions currently being studied and dramatically increase convenience and patient well-being."

"MANF's profile of activity indicates that it has significant potential to impact the beta cell dysfunction at the root of impaired insulin secretion in patients leading to clinical diabetes," said Dr. John Commissiong, Chief Scientific Officer of Amarantus. "MANF's ability to correct protein misfolding and mitigate apoptosis may slow or prevent the progression of patients with beta cell dysfunction into full blown diabetes."

"The partnership with Generex will allow Amarantus to exploit its technologies in the field of diabetes through its wholly-owned subsidiary Amarantus MA," said Martin D. Cleary, Chairman & CEO of Amarantus.

Cleary continued, "These collaboration programs are a major step toward the validation of the enormous potential of the MANF platform that Amarantus is judiciously advancing for the treatment of the apoptosis associated with a wide range of human disorders, including pre-diabetes and diabetes."

"Given the recent positive preliminary results from our 084 and Prevoral trials with Oral-lyn™, we now believe we better understand the best use for our Oral-lyn™ product and feel it is appropriate to plan for a partnership that will add ground-breaking scientific research to support Generex's future pipeline of diabetes product candidates," said Dr. Gerald Bernstein, Vice President of Medical Affairs for Generex Biotechnology.

Dr. Bernstein continued, "Today's announcement affirms our commitment to the potential of our RapidMist™ technology to successfully deliver protein drug candidates to treat diabetes."