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Arlington, VA | Monday, May 21, 2007

Champions Biotechnology, Inc. acquires Biomerk, Inc.

Oct 25 2011 3:59 PM

Champions Biotechnology, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board:CSBR), announced today that it has entered into an agreement and plan of merger with Biomerk, Inc., a private biotechnology company. Champions Biotechnology will issue 4,000,000 restricted shares of its common stock to acquire ownership of Biomerk.

Biomerk is focused on generating a novel preclinical platform of human cancer tumor immune-deficient mice xenografts (Biomerk Tumorgrafts™). Biomerk, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is owned by Dr. David Sidransky, a major shareholder in Champions Biotechnology. James Martell, President and CEO of Champions Biotechnology, has served as a consultant to Biomerk, providing advice regarding the management and administration of Biomerk. Biomerk Tumorgrafts™, unlike standard cell line derived xenografts, are implanted directly from primary human cancer tumors and never passaged in cell tissue culture. Biomerk believes that these xenografts more closely reflect human cancer biology and are more predictive of clinical outcome.

Biomerk has several patent applications relating to xenograft models used for identifying potentially active chemotherapeutic agents. Biomerk and Champions Biotechnology believe that pharmaceutical companies, as part of their drug discovery and post marketing efforts, are more receptive to utilizing services that are more predictive and that might provide for a faster and less expensive path for their drug approval. These services will allow for their screening of Biomerk Tumorgrafts™ to evaluate tumor sensitivity/resistance to various single and combination standard and novel chemotherapy agents.

Champions Biotechnology was interested in acquiring Biomerk since it believes that there are significant synergies between the know-how, expertise and proposed business of Biomerk and the biotechnology business embarked upon by Champions Biotechnology. Biomerk provides Champions Biotechnology with access to a novel preclinical technology platform. It also provides interim financing to cover current operating costs until longer term capital is obtained to finance

Champions Biotechnology’s future development, since Biomerk has approximately $475,000 cash.In addition, it has certain business relationships that Champions Biotechnology believes will be helpful in achieving its business plan.

“I am very pleased by this acquisition as we strongly believe in Biomerk’s potential in improving methods and approaches to cancer treatment” said James Martell, President and CEO of Champions Biotechnology. “This acquisition is Champions Biotechnology’s second acquisition since our decision in January 2007 to focus on building a biotechnology company from the ground up as our new business approach. We are actively engaged in pursuit of additional opportunities to grow and strengthen the company.”

After the acquisition, Champions Biotechnology will have 31,624,658 issued and outstanding common shares. Of those, 23,573,000 will be restricted common shares.

About Champions Oncology, Inc.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (formerly Champions Biotechnology, Inc) is engaged in the development of advanced technology solutions and services to personalize the development and use of oncology drugs. The Company’s Tumorgraft™ Technology Platform is a novel approach to personalizing cancer care based upon the implantation of primary human tumors in immune deficient mice followed by propagation of the resulting engraftments, or Tumorgrafts™, in a manner that preserves the biological characteristics of the original human tumor. The Company uses this technology in conjunction with related services to offer solutions for two customer groups: Personalized Oncology Solutions (“POS”) in which physicians and patients looking for information help guide the development of personalized treatment plans, and Translational Oncology Solutions (“TOS”) in which pharmaceutical and biotech companies seeking personalized approaches to drug development can lower the cost and increase the speed of developing new drugs and increasing the adoption of existing drugs. The Company’s Tumorgraft™ Technology Platform consists of processes, physical tumors and information that we use to personalize the development and use of oncology drugs. The Company is building its Tumorgraft™ Technology Platform through the procurement, development and characterization of numerous Tumorgrafts™ within each of several cancer types. Tumorgrafts™ are procured through agreements with a number of institutions in the U.S. and overseas as well as through its POS business. The Tumorgrafts™ are developed and tested through agreement with a United States-based preclinical facility.

The Company provides POS to oncologists by establishing and administering expert tumor panels for their patients to analyze medical records and test results, to assist in understanding conventional and experimental options and to identify and arrange for testing, analysis and study of the patients’ cancer tissues, as appropriate. Additionally, the Company offers Personalized Tumorgraft™ development, drug studies and genome sequencing as part of its POS whereby physicians can evaluate the effects of cancer drugs on their patients’ tumorgrafts and understand the genetic make-up of their patient’s tumor enabling them to better select treatment regimens that may be efficacious to the patient

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995) that inherently involve risk and uncertainties. Champions Oncology generally uses words such as “believe,” “may,” “could,” “will,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. One should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements for many unforeseen factors. See Champions Oncology’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2011 for a discussion of such risks, uncertainties and other factors. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made, and Champions Oncology’s future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements may not meet these expectations. The Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in Champions Oncology’s expectations, except as required by law.

References:

  1. Hidalgo M et al. Activity of gemcitabine in direct patient derived xenografts predicts clinical outcome: validation of an in vivo model for drug development. J Clin Oncol 27:15s, 2009 (suppl; abstr 4528)
  2. Hidalgo M et al. A Pilot Study of Treatment Guided by Personalized Tumorgrafts in Patients with Advanced Cancer. Mol Cancer Ther August 2011 10:1311-1316
  3. Rubio-Viqueira B, Jimeno A, Cusatis G, et al. An in vivo platform for translational drug development in pancreatic cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2006;12:4652-4661.
  4. Champions data on file.