PennyPerformers.com: "Penny Stocks that Perform" picks are: GILD, SQNM, UNDT

Dec 04, 2008 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- UNDT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Pennyperformers.com "Penny Stocks that Perform" picks are: Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD), Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM), Universal Detection Technology (OTCBB: UNDT)...and Proudly Introducing Proprietary Push Technology (PPT).

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Dec. 4 -- Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) has initiated a Phase I clinical trial of GS9411 in healthy volunteers to evaluate the safety and tolerability of the investigational compound, as announced by it's partner Parion Sciences, Inc. today. GS9411 is designed to increase airway hydration for the treatment of pulmonary disease. Previously known as P-680, GS9411 is an epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) blocker discovered by Parion, a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on treating diseases that result from the failure of the body's mucosal defenses.

The initiation of the Phase I trial triggers a $5 million milestone payment to Parion, according to an exclusive licensing and co-development agreement signed in August 2007 granting Gilead worldwide commercialization rights to GS9411 for the treatment of pulmonary diseases, including cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and non-CF bronchiectasis. Parion and Gilead jointly performed the IND-enabling studies for GS9411, and Gilead will assume primary development responsibilities going forward. The two companies are also collaborating on a research program to identify other promising ENaC blocker-based drug candidates utilizing Parion's proprietary ENaC-based chemistry platform.

"This is an important milestone in our program to develop ENaC inhibitors to treat a range of diseases through restoring and maintaining the hydration of mucosal surfaces," said Paul Boucher, Sr. Director, Finance and Business at Parion. "Our partnership with Gilead has enabled us to accelerate development of GS9411 and successfully meet the goals and timelines for this project. We look forward to discovering the potential of this compound to provide a new treatment option for patients suffering from cystic fibrosis, COPD and other serious lung conditions."

Epithelial sodium channel blockers, such as GS9411, are unique therapeutic agents developed to maintain and stimulate hydration on the body's mucosal surfaces, including those on the lung, mouth, nose, eye and gastrointestinal tract. Restoring the hydration of mucosal airway surfaces addresses the fundamental problem that predisposes individuals to infections in both acquired and genetic forms of chronic lung disease, including COPD and CF.

About Parion Sciences

Based in Durham, NC, Parion Sciences is a privately-held, development-stage pharmaceutical company that is leveraging its proprietary small molecule chemistry and epithelial biology expertise to discover and develop an innovative pipeline of therapies for diseases resulting from the failure of the body's mucosal defenses, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), cystic fibrosis, bronchiactesis and Sjogren's syndrome. Parion's lead product candidate, P-552, is currently in Phase II clinical development for the treatment dry mouth associated with Sjogren's syndrome. Parion was founded based on technology from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, Inc.

Dec 01, 2008 -- Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced new data from a collaborative project with The Chinese University of Hong Kong, published this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that demonstrate its innovative, next-generation, noninvasive prenatal diagnostic technology accurately quantified maternal plasma DNA sequences for fetal Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome, based on samples taken from women in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. These data are the first to suggest that this future approach, based on massively parallel genomic DNA sequencing, can be effective in women who had not previously undergone invasive procedures.

This study used massively parallel genomic sequencing to quantify maternal plasma DNA sequences for the noninvasive prenatal detection of Down syndrome, assessing samples from 28 women in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. All 14 Down syndrome fetuses and normal fetuses were correctly identified at these early stages.

"Current invasive methods for diagnosing Down syndrome in pregnancy have documented risks associated with such procedures. Our new study using massively parallel genomic DNA sequencing represents a 'next-generation' technology for noninvasive, safe testing of Down syndrome. This is the first study to show that this approach can be used for the detection of Down syndrome in both the first and second trimesters, based on a rigorously controlled clinical cohort in which the pregnant women with fetuses affected by Trisomy 21 and those with normal fetuses were matched in gestational age, and in which most of the studied subjects had not previously undergone an invasive procedure. The latter point is important as it shows that the method would truly work in the noninvasive prenatal diagnostic scenario. This study also employs a novel data analysis algorithm which has achieved an unprecedented clear separation of the Trisomy and normal samples," stated Dennis Lo, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of the study, and Li Ka Shing, Professor of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. "While this new approach is several years away as a commercially viable test, we believe that massively parallel genomic sequencing of DNA in maternal plasma may offer a complementary approach to the RNA SNP allelic ratio approach that we reported last year for Trisomy 21 detection. The two approaches have performance and cost profiles which would potentially be synergistic to one another."

Sequenom licensed the exclusive rights to the massively parallel genomic DNA sequencing technology featured in this study from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in September 2008.

"Screening tests currently available for early detection of Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders are associated with a relatively high rate of inaccuracy, which can result in an overlooked abnormality or, in the case of false positive results, unnecessary invasive and risky procedures," stated Harry Stylli, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Sequenom. "Systems to support DNA sequencing like massively parallel genomic sequencing or shotgun sequencing are currently limited to the academic setting due to scalability limitations and high cost, therefore practical applications are several years from commercialization. We find the data reported by Dr. Lo and associates to be very compelling and, while we continue to evaluate other promising approaches, Sequenom licensed this technology several months ago because we believe massively parallel genomic sequencing is a promising approach to prenatal diagnostics that may offer a future extension to our SEQureDx(TM) prenatal diagnostics franchise. Even though this technology is years away from the clinic, we expect that our current RNA SNP allelic ratio technology - which is the basis for the Down syndrome test we expect to launch in June 2009 - will represent a major step forward in maternal and fetal testing."

Current screening technology for Down syndrome includes serum marker analysis, such as the quad screen and first trimester combined screening that employs both serum marker testing and nuchal translucency. These approaches have detection or sensitivity rates of 80% and 85% respectively, which means between 15% and 20% of all Down syndrome-affected pregnancies will not be identified as needing further evaluation. In addition, these approaches also have false positive rates between 5% and 10%, resulting in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary, highly invasive CVS or amniocentesis procedures. These invasive procedures, which are used to determine whether the fetus has Down syndrome, carry a risk of miscarriage in the range of one-in-100 to one-in-300.

The study, entitled "Noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal chromosomal aneuploidy by massively parallel genomic sequencing of DNA in maternal plasma" by Chiu et. al., is available online in this week's Early Edition of PNAS.

Sequenom's Proprietary Noninvasive Prenatal Diagnostics

Sequenom's commercial opportunities in prenatal diagnostics are built upon its SEQureDx technologies and are enabled by the pioneering inventions and associated intellectual property rights that it has exclusively licensed from Isis Innovation Ltd., the technology transfer company of the University of Oxford, as well as The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Sequenom's portfolio of noninvasive prenatal diagnostic patent rights and patent applications is platform-independent, includes genetic-analysis methods using circulating cell-free fetal nucleic acids from maternal serum, plasma or whole blood, and also includes a portfolio of methylation and nucleic-acid markers. Sequenom holds exclusive rights in territories including the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong. Sequenom is actively expanding its intellectual property position with new technology and new territories. Because Sequenom's license rights are platform-independent, the rights provide exclusivity (with the narrow exception in Europe for RT-PCR-based Rhesus D tests) for development and commercialization of noninvasive prenatal screens and tests on any platform and are not limited to the Company's MassARRAY(R) platform.

About SEQureDx Technology

Sequenom's SEQureDx Technology is a novel approach to genetic screening. Unlike current standards of harvesting placental tissue cells as is required for chorionic villus, or entering the uterus to sample the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby as is performed with amniocentesis, SEQureDx Technology extracts Fetal Nucleic Acid material safely and comfortably from a simple blood specimen collected from the mother to determine the genetic status of the fetus. This breakthrough suggests that effective screening may be accomplished in the future without the risks associated with disturbing the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby in the uterus. In December 2007, the Company, through a laboratory partner, introduced a laboratory-developed RHD genotyping test using RT-PCR in the United States.

Sequenom continues to make substantial progress with its noninvasive Trisomy 21 test based on multiple RNA fetal markers, including the PLAC4 gene as previously published by Dr. Dennis Lo. Recently, Sequenom announced initiation of a 16-month RNA-based Noninvasive Aneuploidy (RNA) study to evaluate its Trisomy 21 technology performance in up to 10,000 women with high-prevalence pregnancies within the first trimester. Led by Drs. Jacob Canick, Ph.D. and Glenn Palomaki from Women & Infants Hospital at Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the study's primary goal is to document the performance (clinical sensitivity and false-positive rate) of Sequenom's Trisomy 21 technology that uses fetal RNA in maternal plasma to identify Down syndrome in early pregnancy. The study is expected to be completed post-launch of the Trisomy 21 test.

About Down Syndrome

Down syndrome is a chromosomal abnormality characterized by the presence of an extra copy of genetic material on the 21st chromosome, either in whole (Trisomy 21) or in part (such as due to translocations). The effects of the extra copy vary greatly among people. In 2007, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) endorsed guidelines that offer risk assessment to all pregnancies for fetal chromosomal abnormalities, including Down syndrome. The ACOG recommendation includes screening before the 20th week of pregnancy using a less-invasive screening option that includes ultrasound in conjunction with the measurement of certain blood hormones. It is estimated that approximately 70%, or 2.8 million, women undergo Down syndrome screening in the United States each year.

About Sequenom

Sequenom is committed to providing the best genetic analysis products that translate the results of genomic science into solutions for noninvasive prenatal diagnostics, biomedical research, translational research and molecular medicine applications. The Company's proprietary MassARRAY system is a high-performance (in speed, accuracy and cost efficiency) nucleic acid analysis platform that quantitatively and precisely measures genetic target material and variations. The Company has exclusively licensed intellectual property rights for the development and commercialization of noninvasive prenatal genetic tests for use with the MassARRAY system and other platforms.

Sequenom(R), MassARRAY(R) and SEQureDx(TM) are trademarks of Sequenom, Inc.

About The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Founded in 1963, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a forward looking comprehensive research university with a global vision and a mission to combine tradition with modernity, and to bring together China and the West. CUHK teachers and students hail from all corners of the world. In 2007, CUHK had more than 6,100 staff members, approximately 10,000 undergraduate and 3,300 research postgraduate students. Of these students, some 2,500 are from 45 countries and regions outside Hong Kong. The University received research funding of close to HK$400 million in the 2006/07 academic year from various local and overseas sources. Four research areas led by CUHK staff have been selected as four of only ten Areas of Excellence funded by the University Grants Committee. CUHK research centers have close collaboration with mainland China and overseas institutions. Many research products have been put into practical use through technology transfer and spin-off companies. Technology transfer at CUHK is handled by the Technology Licensing Office headed by Ms. Alice Ngan.

Dec 04, 2008 -- Universal Detection Technology (OTCBB: UNDT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) (FRANKFURT: PO8), a developer of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bioterrorism and other infectious health threats and provider of counter-terrorism consulting and training services, reported today that it has received a purchase order for its bioterrorism detection equipment from the City of Orlando, Florida Police Department. The detection equipment is designed to check for anthrax and can return results in as little as 3 minutes. The Orlando Police Department (OPD) is responsible for law enforcement within the city limits of Orlando, Florida. OPD currently employs over 700 sworn officers and over 100 civilian employees serving the citizens of Orlando through crime prevention, criminal investigations and apprehension, neighborhood policing, involvement through the schools with young people and overall delivery of police services. Areas of jurisdiction of the OPD include the Universal Orlando theme park.

A report to be released Monday by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism says urgent security measures need to be taken soon or the world is likely to undergo an incident of terrorism using weapons of mass destruction within the next five years. "Unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013," the report states in the opening sentence of the executive summary. The report also emphasizes the need of the new administration to prepare the nation against a future bioterrorist attack.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THE REPORT PLEASE GO TO: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=10944062.

In a separate report published by the MIT Technology Review, "members of the Obama transition team warn that the US has not taken seriously the threat of bioterrorism, and that some chemical plants are potential targets."

"Given the recent reports, warning of a potential bio-terror attack in the near future, it is imperative that first responders be prepared with the most advanced detection technologies," said Mr. Jacques Tizabi, UNDT's Chief Executive Officer. "UNDT's bioterrorism detection equipment has been extensively used by first responders and private industry throughout the country. The equipment has been evaluated by the U.S. DOD as well as the United Kingdom military," he added.

The equipment's capacities include:

-- No cross-reactivity with near neighbor strains -- No cross-reactivity to household powders -- No set-up time -- No expensive reader needed -- No decontamination requirements -- No false positives -- No false negatives -- No hook effect

UNDT has received the purchase orders referred to in this news release through Security Solutions International (SSI). The equipment was billed to the Orlando Police Department by SSI as part of participation in the counterterrorism training at the Gulf Coast Terrorism Conference and is expected to be delivered to them directly from UDT within the next 30 days.

About Universal Detection Technology

Universal Detection Technology is a developer of monitoring technologies, including bioterrorism detection devices. The Company on its own and with development partners is positioned to capitalize on opportunities related to Homeland Security. For example, the Company, in cooperation with NASA, has developed a bacterial spore detector that detects certain biohazard substances. The Company is also a reseller of handheld assays used for detection of five bioterrorism agents, radiation detection systems, and antimicrobial products.

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