Amaranth Medical Closes $7.5 Million Series A Financing to Advance the Development of Bio-Absorbable Stents

Amaranth Medical, Inc., a developer of bio-absorbable stents for peripheral and coronary vascular applications, today announced the closing of a $7.5 million Series A financing led by Bio*One Capital of Singapore and Charter Life Sciences of Palo Alto, California.

The proceeds of this financing will be used to advance the company's bio-absorbable stents into human clinic trials. The company has developed a bio-absorbable urinary stent which will enter clinic trials shortly. The company's bio-absorbable vascular stents are expected to enter clinical trials in 2007, initially for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease ("PVD"). PVD is a major disease in developed countries, afflicting from 12 to 20 percent of people over the age of 65 in countries such as the United States, where PVD currently afflicts eight million people. Current treatment techniques, including metal stents, are only partially effective, and severe PVD, if not effectively treated, can result in limb amputation. Approximately 200,000 amputations take place in the United States each year as a result of limb ischemia. Metal stents have a history of high fracture rates in the treatment of PVD, and Amaranth's polymeric stents are expected to be much more durable than metal stents. Amaranth's stents also have the great advantage of being bio-absorbable, so that stent treatment of the PVD affected vessel can be repeated if the vasculature closes again after time (restenosis), while re-treatment of the same portion of the vasculature is extremely difficult or impossible after treatment with a metal stent.

Amaranth's core technology involves proprietary methods of creating bio-absorbable polymeric stents which offer a number of benefits over the metal stents currently in use. Amaranth's stents are self-expanding at body temperature, fully biodegradable, biocompatible, flexible, able to withstand multiple stresses and able to elute relatively large quantities of different drugs in multiple directions to prevent restenosis and enhance vessel repair.

Amaranth's technology was developed over several years by a team of researchers led by Professor Freddy Boey and Professor Subbu Venkatraman at Nanyang Technological University ("NTU") in Singapore. Professor Boey is the Chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at NTU and has many years of experience in materials development and engineering. Professor Venkatraman's notable career in polymer science includes over 20 years of product development experience with Silicon Valley companies, including Alza and Raychem, and he is now the Associate Chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at NTU. The company has been granted a worldwide exclusive license to this technology by NTU.

Amaranth was originally seeded in Singapore by Bio*One Capital Pte Ltd in 2005. The company's research, development and manufacturing facilities are located in Singapore, while the headquarters of the company are currently located in the offices of Charter Life Sciences in Palo Alto, California. Fred M. Schwarzer, managing director of Charter Life Sciences, serves as the chairman of Amaranth, and a search is ongoing for a chief executive officer of the company.

Mr. Schwarzer stated, "We are very excited by the potential for Amaranth's technology in the extremely large vascular stent market, including the near-term potential to address the unmet medical needs of peripheral vascular disease. Innovative technology is being developed around the world, and we are pleased to be able to help develop this technology from Singapore for the benefit of patients worldwide."

Ms. Swee-Yeok Chu, CEO of Bio*One Capital, stated, "Amaranth exemplifies how Singapore-grown companies with novel and innovative technology can leverage on the strong biomedical sciences capabilities and infrastructure available in Singapore and concurrently access the capital resources available in the United States. Bio*One Capital is pleased to co-lead this financing round and play an important role in the growth and development of this company."

Professor Boey stated, "I am especially pleased with the strong support from Bio*One Capital in founding Amaranth and that a technology wholly developed in Singapore is able to attract substantial funding from an experienced Silicon Valley venture capital investor like Charter Life Sciences."

The board of directors of Amaranth Medical consists of Mr. Fred Schwarzer, Dr. Freddy Boey, Dr. Guy Heathers, interim chief executive officer of Amaranth, Dr. Nelson Teng, managing director of Charter Life Sciences, Dr. Jui Lim, director of Bio*One Capital, and Dr. Lawrence Chin, director of Bio*One Capital.

About Amaranth Medical

Amaranth Medical was originally incorporated in 2005 to commercialize the research of Professors Freddy Boey and Subbu Venkatraman at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. The company has developed a stent for use in ameliorating blockage of the ureter caused by diseases of the urinary tract. This stent has been tested in animal trials and will shortly enter human clinical trials. Amaranth is currently looking for partners to market this uretric product while the company is refocusing its attention on the development of stents for alleviating vascular disease, both peripheral vascular disease and coronary vascular disease, which is a far larger market.