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Sunnyvale, CA — November 10, 2008—Arbor Vita Corporation (AVC), a privately held biopharmaceutical company, today announced a strategic collaboration in women’s health with BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company. The collaboration and license agreement is initially focused on the development of a commercial diagnostic for cervical cancer, which globally affects more than 500,000 women each year. The new cervical cancer diagnostic is one of the first applications of AVC’s PDZ platform. PDZ protein domains organize critical cellular processes including cell signaling and cell-cell contacts. PDZs, targeted by many pathogens, play a key role in HPV’s ability to cause cancer. The new diagnostic exploits this PDZ interaction specifically to detect HPV infection that has progressed to pre-cancer and cancer. “BD has been a pioneer and long-standing leader in protein-based diagnostics,” said Peter S. Lu, M.D., AVC Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to building on this collaboration toward the successful introduction of a novel PDZ-based cervical cancer diagnostic screening test.” About Arbor Vita Corporation Arbor Vita (www.arborvita.com) is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs and diagnostics through a new family of targets — PDZ proteins. PDZ proteins are key cellular organizers in human signaling pathways. The company capitalizes on its unique mix of expertise, intellectual property, and novel PDZ drug discovery platform to accelerate discovery and development programs for both therapeutics and diagnostics. Arbor Vita’s current programs address major health areas including complex diseases such as cervical cancer and stroke, as well as infectious diseases such as influenza. Contacts
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