VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 17, 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 signed an evaluation agreement with MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca.
Under the terms of the agreement, MedImmune will evaluate the therapeutic effect of its pre-clinical assets with next-generation versions of biOasis's Transcend brain delivery platform. Efficient transport of drugs targeted at the central nervous system is significantly hampered by the blood-brain barrier; biOasis's Transcend platform, with its ability to shuttle compounds across this barrier, may hold a solution to this problem.
"Our working relationship with MedImmune began in November 2012. In our collaboration, we demonstrated transport of MedImmune's antibodies into the brain using our first-generation Transcend vector," said Dr. Reinhard Gabathuler, Chief Scientist at biOasis. "In addition, we introduced our second-generation Transcend vector into this collaboration and other programs we have underway, where we have observed equivalent or increased antibody transport into the brain. We feel that this next generation of Transcend will have specific advantages in transporting certain biologics into the brain."
"MedImmune is pleased to be entering into this new agreement with biOasis," said Dr. Carl Webster, Associate Director, Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, MedImmune. "Our recently completed initial collaboration was very positive and led us to decide to undertake this second project to investigate the therapeutic effect and utility of biOasis's technology."
Financial terms were not disclosed.
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.
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On Behalf of the Board of Directors
Rob Hutchison Chairman & CEO
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