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Diatos Elected Among the Top 15 Emerging Biotech Companies of 2004

28/07/2004

French Biotech Company Elected for Its Innovative Technologies and International Development

PARIS, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Diatos S.A., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that the company has been elected as an awardee of FierceBiotech's annual "The Fierce 15," a list of the top emerging biotech companies of 2004.  Diatos is developing a clinical pipeline of anti-cancer products.
   
FierceBiotech Editor-in-chief John D. Carroll lauded Diatos's research efforts in 2004, saying "Diatos has pioneered two technologies for cancer and other life-threatening diseases, and is preparing to advance its innovative therapeutic products into clinical trials."
   
"FierceBiotech is well-known for its coverage of biotech trends and successful business strategies," said Dr. John Tchelingerian, President and Chief Executive Officer of Diatos.  "Being selected as a member of The Fierce 15 is an honor that recognizes Diatos's emerging international presence in the biotech industry."
   
The Fierce 15 celebrates the spirit of being "fierce" -- daring to be innovative and aggressive, even in an industry with a long time-to-market. The list of Fierce 15 companies is available in today's issue of FierceBiotech and on their web site at http://www.fiercebiotech.com .

About Diatos
Diatos is using its proprietary Diatos Peptide Vector (DPV) intra-cellular/intra-nuclear delivery technology and Tumor-Selective Prodrug (TSP) cancer-targeting technology to develop new therapies for cancer and other serious diseases. The company's lead therapeutic candidate DTS-201, a doxorubicin prodrug, is planned to enter Phase I/II clinical trials during 2004. Diatos is also expanding its product pipeline with new compounds that utilize its DPV or TSP technologies as well as with in-licensed clinical-stage cancer therapies. Diatos has entered into research collaboration agreements with six USA and European biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for the use of DPV technology.
Founded in 1999 as a spin-off from Institut Pasteur, Diatos has raised 33 million Euro to date from Sofinnova Partners (France), GIMV (Belgium), InterWest Partners (USA), Credit Lyonnais Private Equity (France), AGF Private Equity (France), NIF Ventures (Japan), Societe Generale Asset Management (France), Sopartec (Belgium), Innoven Partenaires (France) and BFF (Belgium). Diatos is headquartered in Paris and has operations in Belgium and the United States.

About FierceBiotech
FierceBiotech publishes a daily email briefing read by more than 31,000 executives in over 100 countries. Since its launch in March 2000, FierceBiotech has been recognized as a must-read source of news and intelligence for the biotech industry.

CONTACT:  John Tchelingerian, Ph.D.
          President & CEO
          + 33-1-53-80-93-81
          jtchelingerian@diatos.com