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DIGITAL ANGEL CORPORATION AND VERICHIP CORPORATION FORM JOINT
COMMITTEE TO DESIGN AND DEVELOP IMPLANTABLE GLUCOSE-SENSING
MICROCHIP
FORMER C.R. BARD EXECUTIVE DR. HOWARD S. WEINTRAUB TO LEAD
THE DEVELOPMENT
SO. ST. PAUL, MN (May 23, 2007) -- Digital Angel
Corporation (Amex: DOC), an advanced technology company in the field of
rapid and accurate identification, location tracking and condition
monitoring of high-value assets, and VeriChip Corporation (NASDAQ: CHIP),
a provider of RFID systems for healthcare and patient-related needs,
announced today they have established a joint committee to design and
develop a working, implantable glucose microchip to determine glucose
levels in the bodies of animals and humans, negating the need for
diabetics to draw blood in order to monitor their individual blood glucose
levels. The committee will oversee future clinical trials in animals and
humans, and is also responsible for selecting technology and marketing
partners. The goal for the chip is to function inside the body for a
period of at least six months.
The committee is led by Dr. Howard
S. Weintraub, and also includes Zeke Mejia, Digital Angel’s Animal
Applications Chief Technology Officer, Yuri Smirnov, Digital Angel’s
Animal Applications Principal R & D Engineer, Jonathan Musher, M.D.,
VeriChip’s Chief Medical Officer, Kevin N. McGrath, Digital Angel’s
President and Chief Executive Officer, and Scott R. Silverman, VeriChip’s
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Additional members will be added
from the medical and scientific communities.
Dr. Weintraub said,
“Following our patent award in October 2006, we are positioned to begin
development of a glucose microchip, which has the potential to
revolutionize the way people with diabetes live and the medical care they
receive. There are estimated to be hundreds of millions of people around
the world living with diabetes, many of whom are not compliant with their
care regimens due in large part to the discomfort and inconvenience of
pricking their fingers numerous times per day. This chip could provide a
painless way to quickly and accurately scan blood glucose levels to an
external reader.”
Dr. Weintraub has been a Director of Digital
Angel since March 2002. Dr. Weintraub retired from C. R. Bard, Inc., a
medical device company, in 2003, where he was Vice President, R&D,
Corporate Staff.. From 1988 to 1998, he held a series of senior research
and technology management positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Weintraub
was previously associated with Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation, a Johnson
and Johnson company, from 1973 until 1988, where he held senior research
management positions. He also has authored or co-authored over 50
scientific publications and abstracts. Dr. Weintraub previously served as
chairman of the Industrial Pharmaceutical Technology Section of the AAPS
(formerly APhA), and was the chairman of the Drug Metabolism sub-section
of the Research and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association. Dr.
Weintraub earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pharmacy from Columbia
University and his Ph.D. in biopharmaceutics from the State University of
New York at Buffalo.
Checking blood glucose levels regularly is
critical to properly managing diabetes. The conventional method – a finger
prick – is invasive, painful and often inaccurate. The implantable
bio-sensor chip will have a passive transponder, a sensor and integrated
circuitry that could allow anyone implanted with the microchip to
painlessly scan it to determine their blood glucose concentration. The
RFID microchip would then quickly and accurately transmit the glucose data
back to a wireless scanner that displays the glucose level. The RFID
microchip will be powered by the scanner signal, avoiding the need for a
battery in the microchip.
The patent, No. 7,125,382 was granted on
October 24, 2006 and is titled "Embedded Bio-Sensor
System.”
About Digital Angel Corporation Digital
Angel Corporation (http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/)
develops and deploys sensor and communications technologies that enable
rapid and accurate identification, location tracking, and condition
monitoring of high-value assets. Applications for the Company’s products
include identification and monitoring of humans, pets, fish, poultry and
livestock through its patented implantable microchips; location tracking
and message monitoring of vehicles and aircraft in remote locations
through systems that integrate GPS and geosynchronous satellite
communications; and monitoring of asset conditions such as temperature and
movement, through advanced miniature sensors. Digital Angel Corporation is
majority-owned by Applied Digital Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSX), which also owns a
majority position in VeriChip Corporation (NASDAQ: CHIP).
About VeriChip Corporation VeriChip Corporation,
headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, develops, markets and sells radio
frequency identification, or RFID, systems used to identify, locate and
protect people and assets. VeriChip's goal is to become the leading
provider of RFID systems for people in the healthcare industry. VeriChip
sells passive RFID systems for identification purposes and active RFID
systems for local-area location and identification purposes. VeriChip
recently began to market its VeriMed(TM) Patient Identification System for
rapidly and accurately identifying people who arrive in an emergency room
and are unable to communicate. This system uses the first
human-implantable passive RFID microchip, the implantable VeriChip(TM),
cleared for medical use in October 2004 by the United States Food and Drug
Administration.
VeriChip Corporation is majority-owned by Applied
Digital Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSX), which also owns a majority position in
Digital Angel Corporation (Amex: DOC). For more information on VeriChip,
please call 1-800-970-2447, or email info@verichipcorp.com. Additional
information can be found online at http://www.verichipcorp.com/.
This
press release includes forward-looking statements, including but not
limited to statements regarding the potential development, clinical trials
and commercialization of an implantable glucose-sensing microchip, the
potential of the microchip to revolutionize diabetes care and management
and to negate the need for diabetics to draw blood to monitor blood
glucose levels, its ability to painlessly and accurately scan, determine,
and transmit glucose concentration levels to a wireless scanner, and the
potential for it to operate properly within the human body for the
timeframe intended. The Company wishes to caution readers that certain
important factors and various risks may have affected and could in the
future affect the Company’s actual results and could cause the Company’s
actual results for subsequent periods to differ materially from those
expressed in any forward-looking statement made by or on behalf of the
Company. With respect to the Company's expectations expressed in this
press release, such risk factors include, but are not limited to, the
performance of the product according to Company expectations. This
information is also qualified in its entirety by cautionary statements and
risk factor disclosures contained in the Company’s Securities and Exchange
Commission filings, including the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for
the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and its quarterly reports. The
Company can offer no assurances that any projections, assumptions or
forecasts made or discussed in this release will be met, and investors
should understand the risks of investing solely due to such projections.
The Company undertakes no obligation to revise any forward-looking
statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise
after the date of this press release.
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