Sydney, Oct 22, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Shares in Living Cell Technologies (LCT) rose by as much as 61% today after the company announced it had received excellent initial responses in its DiabeCell® trial in Russia following the preliminary announcement on October 9th. DiabeCell® is a treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes which is administered to patients without the need for immunosuppressant drugs. The trial in Russia will determine whether a small dose of live microencapsulated pig islets injected into the abdominal cavity of type I diabetic patients is safe and can produce enough insulin to have a measurable effect on improving the control of blood glucose levels. Medical Director of Living Cell, Professor Bob Elliott, said two patients have been implanted with their first dose of DiabeCell® and are due for a second dose in 6 months. Living Cell said the first patient was injected with an initial dose in June and has had no adverse effects. "Control of blood glucose levels has been maintained while his daily insulin requirement was gradually reduced by about 40% over the past 4 months." The second patient received a first dose in September and now one month after the implant, has been weaned off insulin altogether. "These early stage results have exceeded our expectations, with one patient no longer dependant on insulin therapy following the smallest dose of DiabeCell®," said Professor Elliot. CEO of Living Cell, Dr Paul Tan said: "This outstanding result increases the prospects of DiabeCell® as an effective commercial product for diabetes." Six more patients will be receiving two transplants of the smallest dose of DiabeCell® which is equivalent to one third of the maximum dose. A trial of maximum dose transplants is planned for testing in a proposed New Zealand study. More than 3 million Living Cell shares changed hands today. The average daily volume is 255,000. The stock closed the day at 47.5 cents, up from Friday's close of 31 cents.

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