Medgenics Launches First Clinical Trial In Hepatitis To Use INFRADURE Tissue Treatment

Medgenics, Inc. (NYSE MKT: MDGN and AIM: MEDU, MEDG) (the “Company”), the developer of a novel platform technology for the sustained production and delivery of therapeutic proteins in patients using their own tissue, announced today that the first patient has been enrolled in a Phase I/II clinical trial with the Company’s INFRADURE™ Biopump™ for the treatment of hepatitis C. This is the first clinical trial of INFRADURE, a subcutaneous autologous skin tissue implant for the continuous production and delivery of interferon-alpha (INFa) being developed by Medgenics to treat hepatitis B, C and D, aimed at replacing months of weekly injections of INFa, along with their serious side effects.

The Phase I/II dose-escalation study is being initiated at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, with additional sites in Israel expected to join the study. The study is enrolling patients with hepatitis C of genotypes 2 and 3, who would normally receive weekly injections of pegylated INFa together with a daily dose of the oral antiviral drug ribavirin These patients will receive a single implantation of INFRADURE Biopumps in place of the weekly injections, together with daily ribavirin. The study is designed to show safety and tolerability of INFRADURE through the continuous delivery of INFa into the patient’s circulation and to determine effective dose levels that suppress serum levels of hepatitis C virus. Medgenics believes that the results of this study will assist in developing and calibrating INFRADURE for use in additional types of viral hepatitis, as well as other indications.

INFRADURE is aimed at replacing injections of INFa to address a global market of over 500 million patients suffering from various forms of hepatitis. This proof of concept study will test INFRADURE’s approach of continuous production of INFa from the patient’s own dermal tissue. The INFRADURE treatment will be similar whether used in hepatitis C, hepatitis B, the most widespread form of hepatitis, or hepatitis D, a rare and highly aggressive form of the viral disease.

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