COMPANY NEWS: Press Release 34 June 18, 2007 Company Press Release: Adenosine Therapeutics Announces Investment by Novartis Option Fund and Option Agreement to Develop Novel Oral Drugs for Diabetes and Asthma Charlottesville, Virginia. June 18,2007 -- Adenosine Therapeutics, LLC (ATL), announced today that the Novartis Option Fund is leading the Company’s $14 million series “C” financings. In a separate agreement, Novartis has acquired an option to ATL’s A2B receptor antagonist program. ATL will continue to develop the program, which is targeted at developing drugs for the oral treatment of Type II diabetes, asthma and other disorders. “This relationship will accelerate the clinical development of our family of A2B antagonists that have the potential to offer new oral treatment options for patients suffering from Type II diabetes and asthma,” said Robert S. Capon, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Adenosine Therapeutics. “Collaborating with Novartis allows ATL to complement its internal research capabilities with those of this well-respected leader in the pharmaceutical industry and provides robust financing to take the program forward into clinical development.” In addition to the drug candidates developed by ATL, Novartis obtained an exclusive option to U.S. Patent 6,060,481, which covers the use of A2B receptor antagonists for the treatment of diabetes and related diseases. This patent was conceived by Kathryn LaNoue, Ph.D. of Penn State University, and Joel Linden, Ph.D. of the University of Virginia, and was exclusively licensed to ATL. Dr. LaNoue and Dr. Linden jointly discovered that A2B receptor antagonists lower blood glucose in insulin resistant animals. Research by Dr. Linden, a co-founder of Adenosine Therapeutics, and others also suggests that A2B receptor antagonists may be effective for the treatment of asthma and other disorders.
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