VANCOUVER, June 5 /CNW/ - Med BioGene Inc. ("MBI") (TSX Venture: MBI) is
pleased to announce the appointment of Bruce Cousins, C.A., as a director of
MBI.
Mr. Cousins is the Chief Financial Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals
Corporation (NASDAQ: ASPV; TSX: ASV) (www.aspreva.com). With Mr. Cousins as
its CFO, Aspreva completed a $76 million private equity financing and a
$113 million cross-border initial public offering on the Nasdaq National
Market and Toronto Stock Exchange - the largest initial public offering for a
biotechnology / biopharmaceutical company in Canadian history. Furthermore,
during his tenure, Mr. Cousins has seen Aspreva evolve into an emerging global
biopharmaceutical company with expected 2006 revenues to exceed
US$200 million.
Prior to joining Aspreva, Mr. Cousins spent 14 years with Johnson &
Johnson (J&J) as the World Wide Financial Director for J&J's Wound Management
Division in Somerville, New Jersey. As CFO of this US$500 million business
unit, Mr. Cousins also held a key leadership role on the Global Management
Board. Prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Cousins was a
chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche.
"Bruce's experience and accomplishments in the industry will be
invaluable in assisting Med BioGene's efforts to develop its molecular
diagnostic tests," stated Erinn Broshko, Chief Executive Officer of MBI.
"Bruce greatly adds to our already strong board of directors and his
appointment reflects positively on Med BioGene's future prospects."
"I am delighted to join Med BioGene at such an exciting time in the
company's growth," stated Mr. Cousins. "With a highly qualified scientific and
senior management team in place and a solid intellectual property portfolio,
Med BioGene is well-positioned to be a leader in molecular diagnostics. I look
forward to working with the other board members and senior management to make
Med BioGene a success."
Corporate Matters
MBI has granted five-year incentive stock options to purchase an
aggregate of 150,000 common shares at an exercise price of $0.40 per share.
About Med BioGene
MBI is a biotechnology company with advanced research expertise in gene
expression technology. MBI's mission is to become a market leader in the
supply of content for molecular-based diagnostic micro arrays. MBI intends to
fulfill this mission by developing and marketing genetic content for
molecular-based human diagnostic tests. Molecular diagnostics, based on
genetic expression, is a developing technology field that has the potential to
replace certain of today's standard diagnostic tests. MBI intends to utilize
its expertise in gene expression, bioinformatics and micro arrays to develop
the diagnostic tests' genetic content. From the tens of thousands of genes in
the human genome, MBI is attempting to identify those genes, known as "bio
markers," which mark the presence of various disease conditions.
MBI's initial focus will be developing diagnostic tests for certain types
of cancer, specifically lymphoma and leukemia. In the future, MBI intends to
develop diagnostic tests to identify the earliest stages of heart disease or
the presence of an infectious disease. These diagnostic test kits will be
designed to provide additional information to physicians to allow them to
create more suitable and more effective treatments for an improved patient
prognosis.
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or accuracy of this release.
Certain statements in this press release contain forward-looking
information under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Words such as
"anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "plans,"
"projects," "will," "would" and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information
contains these identifying words. Forward looking information includes, but
are not limited to, those with respect to future profits, future product
revenues, future operations and plans, the use of proceeds from financings,
the timing of clinical trials and the completion date for clinical trials and
the prospects for negotiating partnerships or collaborations and their timing.
These forward-looking statements or information are only predictions based
upon MBI's current expectations, and actual events or results may differ
materially. MBI may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations
disclosed in its forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is
subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on
uncertain assumptions that could cause MBI's actual results and the timing of
events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking
information. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this
forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date of this press
release. Our forward-looking information does not reflect the potential impact
of any future partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, mergers,
dispositions, joint ventures or investments MBI may make. All forward-looking
information is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement and MBI
undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information
as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of
this press release, other than as required by applicable law.
