STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Annual General Meeting of Diamyd Medical AB (SWEDEN NOMX: DIAM B; (publ) (the "Company") was held in Stockholm, Sweden, on 11 December, 2006.
Annual Report and discharge from liability
The Company's Income Statement and Balance Sheet were approved and the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer were discharged from liability for the financial year 2005/2006.
Election of Board of Directors, Chairman of the Board, auditors and compensation to the Board
Peter Rothschild, Bjorn O. Nilsson, Joseph Janes and Anders Essen-Moller (all re-elected) and Hans Wigzell (new election) were appointed to the Board of Directors. Tord Lendau had declined re-election.
Joseph Janes was elected Chairman of the Board.
The Meeting approved a compensation to the Chairman of Board of US$ 24,000 and an amount of US$ 12,000 to each of the other members of the Board.
PriceWaterHouseCoopers with Eva Riben as main responsible accountant, was elected as ordinary auditor together with Liselott Stenudd, PriceWaterHouseCoopers (new election).
Amendment of the Articles of Association
The Meeting approved the Board's proposals regarding amendments to the Articles of Association required by the new Swedish Companies Act, which came into force on 1 January, 2006.
Authorisation 1
The Meeting authorized the Board of Directors to resolve, at one or more occasions until the next Annual General Meeting, to issue new shares with consideration in cash or in kind or by set-off or with other conditions and without regard to pre-emption rights. The total number of shares that can be issued based on this authorization shall not exceed 600,000.
Authorisation 2
The Meeting approved the Board of Directors' proposal to implement an option scheme including the issuance of 250,000 purchase options to employees and close collaborators of the Diamyd Group. Each purchase option shall entitle the holder to acquire one series B-share. The Meeting also approved the issuance of 250,000 warrants in order to secure the Company's obligations under the issued purchase options. At full execution of all warrants, dilution is calculated to approximately 2.5 percent.
Principles for compensation and other terms of employment for management
The Meeting approved the Board of Directors' proposal for principles for compensation and other terms of employment for the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.
The CEO Anders Essen-Moller presented important aspects of the operations for the fiscal year.
* Diamyd(R) was safe and effective in preserving insulin-producing function in type 1 diabetes patients (Phase II clinical trial results). * Diamyd(R) Phase II and II/III clinical trials with total 207 type 2 LADA patients ongoing. * Neurologix Inc., NJ licensed GAD65 for the development of therapy to treat Parkinson's disease. Therapy was safety and tolerable with efficacy (Phase I clinical trial results). * Nurel Therapeutics Inc., PA was acquired, bringing gene therapy platform for treatment of acute pain (Preclinical stage) * Protein Sciences Corporation, CT starts manufacture of Diamyd(R) for Phase III trials. * Diamyd Medical invested US$ 3 million in a Protein Sciences convertible bond, getting access to its next-generation recombinant influenza vaccine FluBlOk against pandemic influenza. About Diamyd Medical
Diamyd Medical is a Life Science company focused on developing treatments for diabetes and its complications. The Company's furthest developed project is the GAD-based drug Diamyd(R) against autoimmune diabetes. Diamyd(R) has demonstrated significant and positive results in phase II clinical trials of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients.
GAD65 is a dominant autoantigen in autoimmune diabetes and is the active substance in Diamyd(R). GAD65 is also an enzyme that converts the excitatory neurotransmittor glutamate to the inhibitory transmittor GABA. In this context GAD may have an important role not only in diabetes, but also in several CNS-related diseases. Diamyd Medical has an exclusive world-wide license from the UCLA in Los Angeles regarding the therapeutic use of the GAD65 gene.
Diamyd Medical has outlicensed the use of the GAD65-gene to Neurologix Inc., New Jersey, for treatment of Parkinson's disease and clinical Phase I studies are ongoing.
Other projects comprise drug development within gene therapy using the patent protected NTTDS system (Nerve Targeted Drug Delivery System). The projects mainly make use of Enkephalin and GAD and are targeted for chronic pain e.g. diabetes pain or cancer pain. All projects in this field are in preclinical phases.
Diamyd Medical has offices in Stockholm (Sweden) and in Pittsburgh (U.S.A) and its shares are quoted at the Nordic Exchange (NOMX: DIAM B). The Diamyd share is also traded in the U.S.A. through a Level 1 ADR program administered by the Bank of New York. . Further information is to be found on the Company's website; http://www.diamyd.com.
This Information may include statements concerning historical, present and forward-looking items and are to the "best of knowledge" of the management of Diamyd Medical and the actual status may differ materially from these statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update these statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting such statements. The Company's Press Releases, Quarterly Reports and Annual Reports ("Information") are translations from Swedish originals. No guarantees are made that these translations are free from errors.
Gregory Tiberend Richard Lewis Communications, Inc. gtiberend@rlcinc.com 212-827-0020
Diamyd Medical AB (publ). Linnegatan 89 B, SE-115 23 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel: +46 8 661 00 26, fax: +46 8 661 63 68 or email: info@diamyd.com. VATno: SE556530-142001.
Diamyd MedicalCONTACT: Gregory Tiberend of Richard Lewis Communications, Inc.,+1-212-827-0020, gtiberend@rlcinc.com, for Diamyd Medical; or AndersEssen-Moller, President and CEO of Diamyd Medical, +46-8-661-0026, or Cell,+46-7-0551-0679, Anders.Essen-Moller@Diamyd.com
Web site: http://www.diamyd.com/