Amarantus BioSciences Developing Parkinson’s Diagnostic Test

Amarantus BioSciences, Inc., a biotechnology company developing new treatments for brain-related disorders including Parkinson’s disease and Traumatic Brain Injury (“TBI”) centered on its proprietary anti-apoptotic therapeutic protein MANF, and Rainbow Coral Corp. biotech subsidiary Rainbow BioSciences, have selected NuroPro, Amarantus’ Parkinson’s disease blood test in development to diagnose symptomatic and asymptomatic Parkinson’s sufferers, as the target product candidate for a proposed joint venture (“JV”). The pending JV agreement will see the two entities partner towards the commercialization of NuroPro.

“This is a cutting edge approach to diagnosing a debilitating disease that afflicts millions of people worldwide,” said RBCC CEO Patrick Brown. “The marketplace is crying out for new breakthroughs in the diagnosis of neurological diseases, and we believe NuroPro has the potential to accurately diagnose people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease, allowing physicians to initiate treatment regimens earlier, as well as conduct clinical research on disease-modifying treatments in development on a younger population of patients.”

The deal is being structured to enable completion of the final stages of the NuroPro program, resulting in a commercially viable product to be introduced to the market place. NuroPro is being developed for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The NuroPro test works by measuring differentiated levels of biomarkers from blood serum in people who have Parkinson’s disease. NuroPro has completed a Phase 1 human clinical trial. The companies expect to initiate a Phase 2 clinical study in 2013. It is anticipated that upon successfully completing Phase 2, NuroPro will be introduced into the marketplace as a Laboratory Developed Test (“LDT”) in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (“CLIA”) certified laboratory prior to initiating a regulatory process with the Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”).