Senesco Completes Acquisition of Fabrus, An OPKO Portfolio Company

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- OPKO Health, Inc. (NYSE:OPK), a multi-national biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company, today reported that Senesco Technologies, Inc. (“Senesco”) (OTCQB: SNTI), completed its acquisition of Fabrus, Inc. (“Fabrus”), an OPKO portfolio company focused on expanding the clinical impact of antibodies by addressing drug targets resistant to traditional antibody discovery methods.

Fabrus has been successful in generating antibodies against difficult, therapeutically important cell surface receptors and ion channels resulting in an internal pipeline that includes next generation antibodies targeting cancer and inflammation. It also has collaborations in place with large pharma and biotech companies to discover antibodies to their targets. Dr. Vaughn V. Smider, founder of Fabrus and faculty member at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, will become acting CEO of Senesco.

In the short term, the business focus of the combined company will be to realize the synergies of the combination, advancing the SNS01-T clinical program and bringing new candidates into clinical development in the next two years.

About Senesco Technologies, Inc.

Senesco Technologies is a clinical-stage biotech company specializing in cancer therapeutics. Its proprietary gene regulation technology has demonstrated the ability to kill cancer cells and protect healthy cells from premature death in disease models. The Company is currently in a Phase 1b/2a trial with a product candidate that is designed to treat B-cell cancers, which include multiple myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and non-Hodgkin’s B-cell lymphomas. Trial sites include Mayo Clinic and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The technology was developed over the last 15 years through the discovery that the genetic pathway for cell growth control is common to both plants and humans. For more information, please visit Senesco.com.

About Fabrus Inc.

Fabrus was the first occupant in 2007 of Pfizer Inc.’s science incubator in La Jolla, CA and has developed an advanced platform for therapeutic antibody discovery and development. Its discovery system allows high-throughput biologic lead identification directly on the cell surface, enabling drug discovery against difficult transmembrane targets. The company has also developed unique scaffolds for biologic therapeutics including ultralong CDR3 antibodies and the chimerasome nanocage.

About OPKO Health, Inc.

We are a multi-national biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company that seeks to establish industry-leading positions in large and rapidly growing medical markets by leveraging our discovery, development and commercialization expertise and our novel and proprietary technologies.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), which statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning, including statements regarding expected benefits of the Fabrus-Senesco transaction, whether their product candidates will ever be successfully developed or commercialized, whether Senesco will advance the SNS01-T clinical program and bring new candidates into clinical development in the next two years, as well as other non-historical statements about our expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding business, technologies and products, financial condition, strategies or prospects. Many factors could cause actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements. These factors include those described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the risks inherent in funding, developing and obtaining regulatory approvals of new, commercially-viable and competitive products and treatments, that earlier clinical results of effectiveness and safety may not be reproducible or indicative of future results, that compounds or diagnostic products under development may fail, may not achieve the expected results or effectiveness and may not generate data that would support the approval or marketing of products for the indications being studied or for other indications, that currently available over-the-counter and prescription products, as well as products under development by others, may prove to be as or more effective than our products for the indications being studied. In addition, forward-looking statements may also be adversely affected by general market factors, competitive product development, product availability, federal and state regulations and legislation, the regulatory process for new products and indications, manufacturing issues that may arise, patent positions and litigation, among other factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date the statements were made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions of the PSLRA.

OPKO Health, Inc.
Steven D. Rubin or Adam Logal, 305-575-4100

Source: OPKO Health, Inc.

Released May 19, 2014