Medgenics' Novel Tissue Implant Approved for Two Hepatitis C Clinical Trials in Israel

Medgenics, Inc.

, the developer of Biopump™, a novel technology for the sustained production and delivery of therapeutic proteins in patients using their own tissue, today announced that Israel's Ministry of Health (MOH) has approved two Phase I/II clinical trials to assess the safety and efficacy of INFRADURE™ in patients with hepatitis C. One study will evaluate previously untreated patients with genotypes 1 and 3, and the other will study genotype 1 patients who have relapsed after initially responding to prior treatments. These are the first approved clinical studies for the use of INFRADURE, a subcutaneous autologous tissue implant developed to continuously produce interferon alpha (IFNa).