Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Presents Progress on Alzheimer's Disease Treatment Technology at AANP Annual Meeting

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BW HealthWire)--June 21, 2001--Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. presented new findings today at the 77th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neuropathologists in Chicago, Illinois that validates its proprietary Alzheimer's disease model.

The presentation, entitled "Increased Oxidative Stress Involving Olfactory Epithelium In Alzheimer's Disease," outlined changes in five key oxidative stress markers and the usefulness of cultured olfactory neurons to provide an AD-specific oxidative stress model. The findings were also published in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology (Vol. 60, page 504, 2001).

The data were presented by George Perry, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and Neuroscience at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Perry is one of the prominent world experts in the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is a pioneer in the area of oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases. He is the Company's Special Consultant for Alzheimer's Disease and a Collaborator at CWRU.

The Company previously announced the signing of a Collaborative Research Agreement and a Licensing Agreement with Professor Perry at CWRU for the use of oxidative stress markers and proprietary models in screening drugs for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly AD. These agreements give the Company exclusive worldwide rights to the technology and establish a seamless working collaboration between the groups that grants the Company exclusive rights to all future developments through the collaboration.

Dr. Perry stated, "This validated model allows us to utilize our extensive findings and understanding of these oxidative stress markers to screen compounds specifically aimed at protecting vulnerable neurons in the brain of Alzheimer's disease patients from damage while restoring normal function."

"Our model is well suited for screening efforts aimed at discovering drug candidates that act as neuroprotectants," said Hossein A. Ghanbari, Ph.D., President and CEO of Panacea and co-inventor of the technology. "These findings further demonstrate that we have developed an Alzheimer's-specific model that mimics vulnerable neurons in the brain."

About Panacea Pharmaceuticals

Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a development stage biopharmaceutical company focused on utilizing functional genomics and proteomics to develop therapeutics and diagnostics for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease.