biOasis Technologies Inc 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.
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 US 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.
"biOasis is very pleased to be working with the scientific team at UBC. As with the CRA to pursue the diagnostic marker for Alzheimer's disease announced on May 15th, this CRA will expand the research on this unique Blood Brain Barrier carrier system and add to our Intellectual Property Trust," said Rob Hutchison CEO. "One of the toughest impediments that physicians face in fighting neurological diseases is the inability to deliver drugs/therapeutics through the barrier formed between the brain and the blood that separates these two systems. The initial research demonstrates that p97 may be used to shuttle a variety of small and large drug and therapeutic compounds across the BBB that are normally excluded from entering the brain. This technology may dramatically change how physicians fight a host of neurological diseases."
biOasis Techno is a Canadian Biotechnology company engaged in the development and commercialization of diagnostics and therapeutics related to neurological diseases. It has extensive and comprehensive intellectual property ("IP") which it obtained, from The University of British Columbia. The company's initial area of focus will be on the utilization of the IP to pursue a biomarker for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The utility of p97 as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease has been corroborated in double blinded and successive multi-site clinical trials.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Alzheimer's disease was listed as the 'underlying cause of death' for 65,829 Americans in 2004. It was the seventh leading cause of death for people of all ages and the fifth leading cause of death in people age 65 and older.