PharmaFrontiers Acquires Autologous T Cell Vaccine Rights for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- PharmaFrontiers Corp. (OTCBB:PFTR), a company involved in the development and commercialization of cell therapies, announced today that it has acquired an exclusive worldwide license for the intellectual property rights and research results of an autologous T cell vaccine for rheumatoid arthritis from the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS), Chinese Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than two million adults in the U.S. have rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease. Spending in the U.S. on the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is projected to grow to $9.5 billion annually by 2013, according to Decision Resources, an independent research firm focused on the pharmaceutical industry.

The SIBS' initial human clinical trial results indicate that T cell vaccination induces immune responses that correlate with clinical improvements measured as reductions in ACR50 (American College Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, which measures joint swelling and tenderness and other factors such as pain and disability) and reductions in rheumatoid arthritis laboratory parameters.

Pursuant to the license agreement, in exchange for an initial payment and a running royalty on the sale of commercialized products, PharmaFrontiers receives the exclusive license and all information and data related to the SIBS' clinical trials involving the T cell vaccine.

"We are very excited by this research and we believe that this therapeutic T cell vaccination approach holds great promise for patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis," said David McWilliams, chief executive officer of PharmaFrontiers. "This rheumatoid arthritis T cell vaccination program is a good fit with our overall autoimmune T cell therapeutics program in which we are already conducting Phase I/II trials for our T cell vaccine, Tovaxin(TM), to treat Multiple Sclerosis. Our expertise and knowledge of the science of T cells in autoimmune diseases makes us highly qualified to judge this data from the SIBS and to determine a future development pathway."

The license agreement permits the SIBS' scientists to publish their research results to date after PharmaFrontiers has filed a patent application covering the rheumatoid arthritis T cell vaccine with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

"We are pleased to have completed this licensing agreement with PharmaFrontiers, a commercialization-driven company with the capability to develop a safe and effective T-cell vaccine for rheumatoid ...