Press Releases

L A JOLLA, Calif. – May 11, 2014 – On May 11, 2014, ICB International, Inc., (“ICBI”), announced confirmation of third-party validation provided by Dr. Eliezer Masliah of the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Eliezer Masliah has shown, upon being provided the necessary materials by the ICBI team, that the amyloid-beta-SM  molecule and the α-Synuclein-SM traffic the blood-brain barrier, breach the blood-brain barrier and reach their target, whereas the amyloid-beta mouse monoclonal antibody and the α-Synuclein mouse monoclonal antibody do not.

Validation of ICBI’s blood-brain barrier permeability and target specificity by Dr. E. Masliah points to the clinical potential of the alpha-synuclein Smart Molecule. The experiments conducted by both parties proves ICBI’s ability to penetrate the blood brain barrier in an alpha-synuclein transgenic moue and also shows how it is specifically bound to both Lewy body-like deposits and α-syn aggregates.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: ICBI is a privately-owned La Jolla, CA based biotech Company engaged in developing proprietary modular platform technology, SMART Molecules, for diagnosing and treating diseases of the central nervous system and cancers of all types. Website: www.icbii.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including ICBI’s development of SMART Molecules as SPECT/PET ligands for Parkinson’s disease. Each of these statements may involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those, expressed or implied.

Media Contact: Ram Bhatt, ICB International, Inc., 858-455-9880, rbhatt@icbii.com.

L A JOLLA, Calif. – April 4, 2014 – On April 4, 2014, ICB International, Inc., (“ICBI”), announced confirmation of it’s grant received from the Michael J. Fox Foundation upon being selected as one of the foundation’s list of 2013 Rapid Response Innovation Award-Winning companies.

The grant allowed ICBI to demonstrate successful study the pharmacology of α-Synuclein-SM in 72 mice at the Center of Molecular Imaging, Canada.

Founded in 2000, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) is the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s disease (PD) research and a
thought-leader in the field.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation has made significant investments in research to understand alpha-synuclein and to translate it into therapeutic strategies for advancing a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

The alpha-synuclein protein is a major component of Lewy bodies, clumps of aggregated protein that are a cardinal neuropathological feature of Parkinson’s disease.
Mutations in the alpha-synuclein gene were some of the first linked to Parkinson’s disease and provide further evidence for its causal role in the disease. These strong
pathological and genetic links make alpha-synuclein a key target for therapeutic development.

The blood brain barrier represents a formidable challenge for successful delivery of macromolecules such as antibodies to the central nervous system. In an effort to achieve greater blood brain barrier penetration than obtained with conventional
antibodies, ICBI, Inc. has developed a novel class of alpha-synuclein “picobodies” of ~50kDa, which are designed to serve as a positron emission tomography (PET) ligands for the detection and monitoring of PD in vivo.

The aim of this study is to determine the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of these picobodies, as well as their efficiency in reaching the brain and binding to alpha-synuclein aggregates. Successful development of this technology could enable early detection of Parkinson’s disease in at-risk individuals and facilitate monitoring of disease progression in PD patients.

Upon receiving the grant, ICBI was able to establish a collaboration with CIMS (Centre D’imagerie Moleculaire de Shebrooke, QC, Canada). ICBI scientists have provided the skills and technology required for the generation of the necessary picobody for alpha-synuclein (a-syn-pico). CIMS collaborators provided radiochemistry for labeling of a-syn-pico, followed by determination of biodistribution and pharmacokinetic studies of a-syn-pico.

The administration of a 125I-α-synuclein-SM via the tail vein to a Transgenic and non-transgenic mice showed first pictures of α-Syn ever seen in a live animal. The non transgenic mice is along the top row of all panel. The transgenic mice over expressing α-Syn outline the bottom row of all panels. As one scans from 1 hour to 72 hours a signal becomes perceptible with the transgenic mouse at the bottom of each picture showing a higher concentration of the α-Syn Smart Molecule, proving successful trafficking of the Blood Brain Barrier.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: ICBI is a privately-owned La Jolla, CA based biotech Company engaged in developing proprietary modular platform technology, SMART Molecules, for diagnosing and treating diseases of the central nervous system and cancers of all types. Website: www.icbii.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including ICBI’s development of SMART Molecules as SPECT/PET ligands for Parkinson’s disease. Each of these statements may involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those, expressed or implied.

Media Contact: Ram Bhatt, ICB International, Inc., 858-455-9880, rbhatt@icbii.com.

L A JOLLA, Calif. – April 11, 2014 – On On March 4, 2014, ICB International, Inc., (“ICBI”), announced the development of a tracer for imaging alpha-synuclein (a-Syn) in Parkinson’s-like mice at the Keystone Symposium for Parkinson disease (PD) in Keystone,Colorado. Speaking at the symposium, Dr. Anna Cartier, a key advisor at ICBI, presented scientific data and showed images for the first successful live visualization of a-Syn in the brains of mice with and without PD using ICBI’s proprietary SMART Molecule Technology. ICBI has created an a-Syn-SMART Molecule (a-Syn-SM) that enters the blood stream, passes through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) into the central nervous system (CNS) and latches onto its target, a-Syn.

A-Syn is an important pharmaceutical target for PD. The aggregation and accumulation of misfolded a-Syn constitutes the hallmark of a group of neurodegenerative diseases, referred to as synuceinopathies, including Parkinson’s disease. Recently, scientists at the Michael J.Fox Foundation (MJFF) published an article in the Journal of Parkinson’s disease that “the ability to image a-Syn deposition in the brain would be a game changing achievement for the Parkinson’s field”. ICBI has addressed this challenge in an animal model.

In the study, a live transgenic (Tg) mouse with PD and a normal control were injected with iodine-125 labeled a-Syn-SM in the tail vein. Single Photon Emission Computing Tomography (SPECT) was used to visualize a-Syn with the radio-labeled a-Syn-SM in these mice. A-Syn was detected in the brain by radio-labeled SM as early as one hour post injection with continued accumulation of radio-labeled SM in the brain for 8 days. These findings, which are consistent with prior results using multiple Tg mice injected with unlabeled a-Syn-SM, strongly support the clinical utility of a-Syn-SM as a SPECT/PET imaging tool for Parkinson’s disease.

Delivery of disease modifying drugs to the CNS has been a problem since the origin of mankind. A physical barrier, the BBB, regulates what goes to the brain. Small molecule drugs that can reach the CNS may provide short-term symptomtic relief but often do nothing to modify the disease. Large molecules that can potentially modify the disease have poor access to the CNS. ICBI is determined to change that with its SMART Molecule technology.

Dr. Ram Bhatt, Ph.D further states that although these preliminary results are very exciting, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done before this technology will be cleared by the US FDA for use in patients for the early diagnosis and monitoring of disease (synucleinopahies) progression or regression during therapy.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: ICBI is a privately-owned La Jolla, CA based biotech Company engaged in developing proprietary modular platform technology, SMART Molecules, for diagnosing and treating diseases of the central nervous system and cancers of all types. Website: www.icbii.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including ICBI’s development of SMART Molecules as SPECT/PET ligands for Parkinson’s disease. Each of these statements may involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those, expressed or implied.

Media Contact: Ram Bhatt, ICB International, Inc., 858-455-9880, rbhatt@icbii.com.