BioTime Endows Study of Aging and Low Temperature Medicine At UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Business Wire, Nov 10, 1999

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 1999--

BioTime, Inc. (AMEX:BTX), announced today that the first meeting of its endowed program for the study of aging and low temperature medicine was held on the University of California at Berkeley campus. The program, created in conjunction with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will be based on the University of California at Berkeley campus and at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The program honors Berkeley Professor Paola S. Timiras, an internationally-recognized gerontologist and member of BioTime's Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Timiras serves as chairperson on the committee that will direct the program.

Ronald S. Barkin, BioTime president and chief operating officer, stated that "I believe that advancements in the study of gerontology, hypothermic medicine, and cryobiology could lead to valuable additions to BioTime's proprietary product pipeline. BioTime maintains an active research program in surgery and hypothermic medicine and sees a need for its products in the treatment of geriatric patients."

"BioTime has recently completed a clinical study at the University College of London Hospitals involving elderly patients undergoing major elective surgery in which large quantities of blood are often lost. The study demonstrated the importance of using physiologically-balanced plasma expanders such as Hextend(R) to treat hypovolemia in older patients. The Hextend-treated patients showed a significantly lower incidence of hyperchloremic acidemia" said Mr. Barkin.

BioTime is planning to submit an amendment to its Hextend investigational new drug application to the United States Food and Drug Administration for the clinical study of Hextend in low temperature surgeries that treat life-threatening aneurysms. Aneurysms are vascular disorders that are often found in patients suffering from aging-related cardiovascular disease. The amendment will include replacing a portion of a patient's circulating blood at hypothermic temperatures. One goal of this study is to develop a protocol to test the total replacement of the circulating blood at near-freezing temperatures with a combination of Hextend and other proprietary formulations, which BioTime may then market as HetaCool(TM) to treat these and other conditions.

BioTime, headquartered in Berkeley, California develops blood plasma volume expanders, blood replacement solutions for hypothermic (low temperature) surgery, organ preservation solutions and technology for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment, and other applications.

The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to BioTime's ability to obtain regulatory approval to market its products; competition from products manufactured and sold or being developed by other companies; the price of and demand for its products; the Company's ability to negotiate favorable foreign licensing or other manufacturing and marketing agreements for its products; the availability of ingredients used in its products; and the availability of reimbursement for the cost of new products (and related treatment) from government health administration authorities, private health coverage insurers and other organizations. These and other risk factors are discussed in BioTime's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.