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November 25, 2005
Diamyd Medical (OMX: DIAM) develops a therapeutic, DiamydT, of vaccine nature for treatment of diabetes. The therapeutic is designed to reduce the need for insulin injections and to eventually lead to cessation of the disease. Three clinical trials with DiamydT are currently conducted at 25 clinics throughout Sweden. The Company now estimates that it will be able to report the results from one of these trials in August 2006, which is one month earlier than previously announced.
"All 70 children have received full treatment and we now plan to report the results of this ground-breaking trial in August 2006 - a month earlier than previously announced", says CEO Anders Essen-Möller.
Symptoms of Type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent diabetes) are often manifest in children as a significantly higher thirst. What has happened is that the patient's insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells have been destroyed through an autoimmune process. At the time when the patient first visits the hospital and is diagnosed only about 10-15% of their beta cells remain, and these will also succumb to the autoimmune process in time. The purpose of treatment with Diamyd™ is to save and allow these residual beta cells the possibility of regeneration.
The multicentre clinical trial is conducted at 8 Swedish diabetes clinics under the leadership of Professor Johnny Ludvigsson of Linköping University. The patients included in the trial encompass children and juveniles between 10-18 years old who have not been diagnosed as being diabetic for more than 1 year.
About Diamyd Medical
Diamyd Medical is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange O-list (OMX: DIAM) and conducts development of therapeutics within the field of diabetes. The Company's furthest developed project is DiamydT, which is currently used in three clinical trials involving both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patients attending 25 clinics throughout Sweden. DiamydT is based on Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase (GAD), the major autoantigen of autoimmune insulin-dependent diabetes. Apart from GAD being an autoantigen for autoimmune diabetes, it is also a critical enzyme that converts the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate to the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. In this manner GAD probably has an important role in several movement related diseases such as Parkinsons. Assuming that Diamyd Medical's acquisition of the American biotechnology company Nurel is approved at the annual general shareholders meeting on December 12th, additional GAD- and Enkephalin-based projects within the fileds of diabetes and pain will be incorporated into the Company's pipeline. Furthermore, Nurel's platform technology for gene therapy could be utilised through licensing within several projects, such as Nurel's NIH-financed cancer project. The annual general shareholders meeting will be held at 15.00 on December 12th at Salén Konferens & Matsalar, Aulan, Norrlandsgatan 15 in Stockholm. Shareholders can register for the meeting via www.diamyd.com
For further information, please contact:
Europe:
Johannes Falk
Chief Information Officer
Tel: +46 (0) 8-545 654 25
Email: johannes.falk@diamyd.com
USA
Kathy Price / Emmanuelle Ferrer
The Global Consulting Group
Tel: (646) 284-9430 / (646) 284-9421
Email: kprice@hfgcg.com / eferrer@hfgcg.com
This information includes statements concerning historical, present and forward-looking items and is to the "best of knowledge" of the management of Diamyd Medical and the actual status and results achieved by the Company may differ materially from these statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update these statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting such statements. The Company's Press Releases, Quarterly Reports and Annual Reports ("Information") are translations from the Swedish originals. No guarantees are made that the translation is free from errors.
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