Exten Industries (fka BB: EXTI)

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NEWS 10/30/2003 MultiCell CEll Lines Introduced Worldwide

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MultiCell Cell Lines Introduced Worldwide as New Findings Expand Potential Use of MCT Technology


30 October 2003, 2:08pm ET

WARWICK, RI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2003--Exten Industries Inc.'s (Exten) (OTCBB:EXTI) wholly owned subsidiary, MultiCell Technologies Inc., (MCT) announced today that its exclusive distribution partner, XenoTech LLC, has introduced MCT's technology at three prominent drug discovery meetings, as new results reported by scientists from XenoTech and Roche independently validate the reproducibility of MCT's cell lines as a valuable tool in pharma's R&D arsenal to characterize new drug candidates.

This week, XenoTech marketed MCT products at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) 2003 meeting in Salt Lake City. According to the AAPS, their annual meeting and exposition is "the largest gathering of pharmaceutical scientists in the world."

Earlier this month XenoTech scientists presented new and promising results showing how MultiCell's liver cell lines can be used to better characterize new drug candidates prior to entry into clinical studies. The presentations were heard by audiences of over 400 pharmaceutical scientists gathered from all over the world who attended the 12th annual meeting of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX), held October 12 - 16 in Providence, RI and the 18th annual meeting of the Japan Society for the International Study of Xenobiotics (JSSX) held October 8 - 10 in Sapporo, Japan.

XenoTech Founder and CEO, Dr. Andrew Parkinson, states, "Our characterization studies corroborate and extend the earlier findings of MultiCell and Pfizer scientists presented at the 2002 ISSX meeting. Our results show that MCT's immortalized hepatocytes retain several functional drug metabolizing enzymes that previously had not been studied." Dr. Parkinson adds, "MCT's cell lines represent a breakthrough technology that has the potential to revolutionize how the pharmaceutical industry screens new drug entities, we anticipate significant worldwide interest in MCT's cell lines."

A presentation by scientists from Roche at the Providence ISSX meeting also concluded that MCT's "immortalized cells have potential for use as an alternative to primary human liver tissue for in vitro induction studies."

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Ronald A. Faris, Ph.D., MultiCell president and chief scientific officer, offers, "The XenoTech and Roche results are very significant. Not only have these laboratories confirmed that MCT cell lines are a reliable tool to study induction of key drug metabolizing proteins, but more importantly, taken together these findings indicate that our immortalized hepatocytes can be employed to study the complex metabolism of new drug candidates and identify potential drug-drug interactions. We anticipate that the greatest impact of MCT technology will be to red-flag those new drug candidates that may have undesirable side effects much earlier in the overall drug discovery process, thus providing significant savings to the pharmaceutical industry."

Dr. Faris added that "MultiCell's global sales, marketing and production agreement with XenoTech will allow us to re-direct our own efforts upon developing therapeutic applications for our highly functional liver cells, thereby, hopefully, opening up new markets for our other potential products."

Copies of the XenoTech and Roche scientific presentations can be requested at [e-mail] .

About Exten:

Exten Industries Inc., through its two subsidiaries Xenogenics Corporation and MultiCell Technologies Inc., is engaged in developing liver-based products in the medical device, therapeutic and pharmaceutical testing arenas. Xenogenics is developing the Sybiol(R) synthetic bio-liver device. MultiCell provides hepatic (liver) cells and cell lines to pharmaceutical companies, and is developing cell-based toxicological and drug screening tests and biologics for use in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. MultiCell's cellular product expertise also enables production of liver-derived therapeutic proteins. Exten's corporate and research headquarters are in Warwick, RI. For more information about Exten and its subsidiaries, visit www.exten.com .

The matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. These risks are detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including the company's Annual Report, Quarterly Reports and other periodic filings. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. The company disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT: Exten Industries Inc., Warwick
Ron Faris, 401-738-7560

SOURCE: Exten Industries