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Croissy-Beaubourg and Montpellier, January 26, 2017 – THERADIAG (ISIN: FR0004197747, Ticker: ALTER), a company specializing in in vitro diagnostics and theranostics, announces that it has been selected by the Eurostars-2 program to receive financial support for its PIONEER collaborative project undertaken by its Prestizia molecular biology platform and its South Korean partners, Professor Chang-sik Yu and his team at Asan Medical Center and CbsBioscience. The purpose of the PIONEER project is to develop two tests based on circulating microRNA biomarkers and tissue messenger RNA (mRNA) in rectal cancer.

Rectal cancer represents a major health issue in Asian countries in particular, with the number of cases increasing by 5.9% per annum. This growing prevalence is in large part due to changes in people’s dietary habits and lifestyle in these countries. Given the lack of any major breakthrough in this field, the aim of the PIONEER project is to improve clinical practices and enable a better evaluation of the response to preoperative chemoradiotherapy treatment, in order to apply the best therapeutic choice for the patient and thus increase their chances of entering remission.

Theradiag, Asan Medical Center and CbsBioscience have joined forces via their complementary fields of expertise in order to develop an innovative solution combining two tests, one based on the signature of circulating microRNA biomarkers, the other on the identification of tissue mRNA markers. This €2.2 million 3-year project will be partly funded by the Eurostars program, and will help validate specific new markers via the recruitment of a cohort of more than 300 patients.

The total subsidy represents €1.3 million, approximately €300,000 of it for Theradiag. A consortium agreement between the 3 partners will be signed in the coming weeks.

“The PIONEER project was ranked 20^th out of the 331 projects examined, which illustrates its technological quality and its substantial scientific and commercial appeal. It represents another milestone in our development in the field of rectal cancer”, says Michel Finance, CEO of Theradiag. “It will help strengthen the work already accomplished in this area, and will potentially open up new international markets to us.”

The EUROSTARS program, jointly funded by Eureka participating states and partner countries and the European Union’s HORIZON 2020 program, supports innovative SMEs involved in European or partner-country collaborative projects, and focuses primarily on R&D-performing companies.

 About Asan Medical Center (AMC)

AMC is the largest academic hospital in Korea and has been chosen as the most respected one for the last 10 consecutive years. In terms of colorectal cancer surgery and treatment, AMC has the best reputation in Korea with more than 2,000 surgeries per year. Since its establishment in 1989, AMC has achieved a world-class medical reputation as it has continued to aggressively invest in R&D and clinical treatment. AMC also has carried out its social responsibility as a respected hospital by fulfilling the spirit of ‘respect for life’ and ‘sharing pain with neighbors.’ AMC is leading medical developer in Korea with its competitive skills and cutting-edge equipment comparable to those of advanced foreign hospitals. ASAN Medical Center is the parent hospital of eight hospitals under the ASAN Foundation.

About CBSBIO

CbsBioscience is an innovative molecular diagnostics company focused on the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and the development and commercialization of effective Companion diagnostics (CDx) technologies for the satisfaction of unmet medical needs in cancer treatment. Specializing in the development of CDx and the discovery of anticancer drugs for cancer treatment, CbsBioscience possesses a large amount of multicenter specimens and a clinical information management system regarding the cancer patients, bioinformatics‐based proteomics, genomics technologies, and in-house clinical statistical systems sufficient for high-capacity data processing. Currently, CbsBioscience retains a large number of biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic decision and participates in a consortium (KCBC, Korea Cancer Biomarker Consortium) affiliated with major hospitals in Korea to conduct the clinical experiment efficiently and to develop the anticancer drug. The company aim to develop a quantitative multi-gene-based CDx technologies and a CDx-based drug for personalized treatment in cancer.

About Theradiag

Capitalizing on its expertise in the distribution, development and manufacturing of in vitro diagnostic tests, Theradiag innovates and develops theranostics tests (combining treatment and diagnosis) that measure the efficiency of biotherapies in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, cancer and AIDS. Theradiag notably markets the Lisa Tracker® range (CE marked), which is a comprehensive multiparameter theranostic solution for patients with autoimmune diseases treated with biotherapies. With its subsidiary Prestizia, Theradiag is developing new biomarkers based on microRNAs for the diagnosis and monitoring of rectal cancer, auto-immune and inflammatory diseases and HIV/AIDS. Theradiag is thus participating in the development of customized treatment, which favors the individualization of treatments, the evaluation of their efficacy and the prevention of drug resistance. The Company is based in Marne-la-Vallée, near Paris, and in Montpellier, and has over 75 employees.

For more information about Theradiag, please visit our website: www.theradiag.com