UPDATE: pSivida Issues Presentation of Preclinical Data Showing Sustained Release of Avastin Using Tethadur

pSivida Corp. PSDV, a leader in the development of sustained release products for treating eye diseases, today announced that the Company presented the first peer-reviewed preclinical data demonstrating the use of pSivida's Tethadur™ technology to provide sustained release of Avastin at the 14th Annual Meeting of ARVO (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology). pSivida's Dinesh K. Nadarassan presented a poster entitled “Sustained Release of Bevacizumab (Avastin) from BioSilicon”. The data from preclinical studies conducted by pSivida concluded that long-term sustained release of antibodies such as Avastin is achievable with Tethadur, a form of pSivida's BioSilicon™ technology, and that the release of the antibodies is controllable over a wide range by adjusting the pore size and surface area of Tethadur. “The implications of the ability to control the duration of sustained delivery of antibodies through pore size are significant,” said Dr. Paul Ashton, president and chief executive officer of pSivida. “By varying pore size, we believe the release rate of antibodies loaded into Tethadur can be controlled, which could permit sustained delivery of antibodies that currently must be delivered by frequent injections. For example, Avastin and the two of the top-selling Veg-F ophthalmic drugs today are injected as frequently as once a month.” pSivida's Tethadur, an application of BioSilicon technology, is designed to provide sustained delivery of large biologic molecules, including peptides, proteins and antibodies. BioSilicon technology utilizes a fully-erodible, honeycomb structure of nano-porous, elemental silicon to provide sustained delivery of therapeutics. The study evaluated the effect of pore size in Tethadur on Avastin release over a period of three weeks.