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 Senior Radio Frequency 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 (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.
