Press Release
Stockholm, March 28, 2006
DIAMYD MEDICAL TO PARTICIPATE IN SEATTLE-SWEDEN CHILDHOOD DIABETES AWARENESS DAY EVENT
Stockholm, Sweden - 28 March 2006 - Diamyd Medical AB (OMX: DIAMB), along with local institutions, will sponsor the first Seattle-Sweden Childhood Diabetes Awareness Day in Seattle, Washington on Saturday, April 1.
The symposium, organized by Professors Ake Lernmark, and Jerry Palmer working out of the University of Washington and Malmo, Sweden, and the Consulate General of Sweden in Los Angeles, will feature presentations by researchers from Seattle and Sweden, as well as biotech companies, including Diamyd Medical.
The list of speakers for the event includes Professor Carl David Agardh of the University Hospital in Malmo, who will present his experiences with Diamyd™, the diabetes vaccine that is currently being studied in a Phase II clinical trial in Sweden.
For reasons unknown to researchers, the incidence rate of Type 1 diabetes in Seattle is on par with that of Sweden, which has the second highest rate of diabetes in youth worldwide. As a result, Seattle and Sweden have strong connections to the development of Diamyd™, Diamyd Medical s lead diabetes vaccine. Groundbreaking discoveries around the technology were made at U.S. universities in Seattle, San Francisco, Gainesville, FL and Los Angeles, as well as at Swedish universities in Lund, Uppsala, Stockholm, Umea and Linkoping.
"It is extremely encouraging that researchers in Sweden and Seattle continue to push jointly to gain ground in the fight against Type 1 diabetes", says Anders Essen-Moller, President and CEO of Diamyd Medical. "Diamyd Medical is pleased and excited to participate in the Seattle-Sweden Childhood Diabetes Awareness Day. This important symposium not only will serve as a means for extending awareness of Type 1 diabetes, but also will provide the means for patients and their families to get information regarding the latest research and available new treatments."
About Diamyd Medical:
Diamyd Medical, registered on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (OMX: DIAM B), is an emerging and global biotechnology company based in Stockholm, Sweden, and Pittsburgh, USA. The Company is focused on developing therapeutics for diabetes and its complications, neurological diseases and cancer as well as on protein delivery using a proprietary gene delivery technology platform.
Diamyd Medical´s lead product, Diamyd™, is based on the Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase (GAD65) protein, a major target for the autoimmune attack against pancreatic islet beta cells that results in insulin-dependent diabetes.
Diamyd™ is developed as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes patients who also have developed autoimmune disease (LADA patients) and also as a means of arresting the ongoing autoimmune process in patients with Type 1 diabetes.
The Company is conducting a large, pivotal, Phase II/III efficacy trial for Diamyd™ in 160 patients with Type 2 diabetes patients with autoimmune disease (LADA patients). The aim of this double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trial is to confirm the ability of Diamyd™ to down-regulate the autoimmune attack that leads to insulin dependence.
The Company is also conducting a Phase IIb clinical trial involving 70 children and adoloscents recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The aim of this study is to investigate if the residual insulin-producing beta cells can be maintained and/or enhanced in these children after two injections of Diamyd™. This study will report end of August 2006.
GAD65 is an enzyme that converts the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate to the inhibitory transmitter GABA. In this context GAD65 may have an important role in several CNS-related disease states.
For further information, please contact:
European Investors
Johannes Falk
Chief Information Officer
Tel: +46 (0) 8-545 654 25
Email: johannes.falk@diamyd.com
US Investors
Kathy Price / Emmanuelle Ferrer
The Global Consulting Group
Tel: (646) 284-9430 / (646) 284-9421
Email: kprice@hfgcg.com / eferrer@hfgcg.com
Diamyd Medical AB (publ). Linnégatan 89 B, SE-115 23 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel: 08-661 00 26, fax: 08-661 63 68 or email: info@diamyd.com. Corp ID: 556530-1420.
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.