VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 2, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- biOasis Technologies Inc. (TSX-V:BTI) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a second Collaborative Research Agreement (“CRA”) with The University of British Columbia (“UBC”). The primary purpose of this CRA is to perform additional research on the use of p97 as a delivery system to shuttle compounds across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This new initiative will build on the preclinical Proof-of-Concept that demonstrated that p97 can shuttle anti-cancer drugs into the brain that are efficacious in the treatment of malignant brain tumours. The results of this study were published in June of 2008, in a landmark study entitled, “A Unique Carrier for Delivery of Therapeutic Compounds beyond the Blood-Brain Barrier” in the on-line journal PLoS ONE http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002469, This new research and the development that will be carried out under the new CRA will add to the Company’s Intellectual Property and may in the future lead to improved methods for delivery of therapeutics to help control or cure a large variety of neurological diseases. Since the publication of the BBB paper, discussions have been underway with a number of biotech and pharmaceutical companies that have shown interest in this technology and, as previously announced, the Company has achieved a key milestone in this developmental path through its agreement with a major U.S. biotechnology company, whereby several of the Company’s patented, proprietary technologies and reagents for delivery of therapeutics across the BBB will be provided to them for further testing. This step is consistent with the overall objectives of the Company to collaborate with one or more companies to expand development and commercial opportunities for the use of this patented technology.
