Navidea Announces Presentation of Study Findings of Manocept™ Platform Imaging Agent in Kaposi Sarcoma at AACR Annual Meeting

DUBLIN, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NAVB), a biopharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, today announced that collaborators from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) presented results at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference, April 5-9, 2014 in San Diego, CA, highlighting the potential utility of imaging agents derived from Navidea’s Manocept™ platform in identifying affected tissues and lymph nodes in patients with Kaposi Sarcoma (KS). The investigators concluded that, based on the results obtained, labeled imaging agents from the CD206-targeting Manocept platform provide potential avenues to enhance diagnosis and staging in this disorder.

“There is a growing number of Kaposi Sarcoma patients worldwide. In advanced states, KS affects not only the skin but involves other organs and tissues, including lymph nodes,” commented Michael S. McGrath, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Laboratory Medicine, Pathology, and Medicine, UCSF. “With few current tumor-specific diagnostic options to determine if and where the tumor has spread from the skin, the receptor-targeting properties and intrinsic performance of Manocept-derived agents represent a potentially potent imaging approach to address unmet needs in this area such as identifying, staging and assessing disease activity in a range of diseases, including KS.”

The study presented on April 9th was designed to define macrophage subsets in all forms of KS and determine if the CD206 mannose receptor is present on the tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) as well as KS tumor cells. The data presented reinforce earlier results in KS and demonstrate in 66 evaluable cases and controls obtained from the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) that the CD206 mannose receptor is highly expressed on both TAMs and KS tumor cells, thereby making it an attractive target for precision diagnostic agents derived from the Manocept platform. In their conclusions, the authors noted such agents may show promise in potentially imaging KS-involved tissues, staging the disease, and detecting its spread in the body to potential visceral sites of disease.

About Navidea Biopharmaceuticals
Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NAVB) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of precision diagnostics and radiopharmaceutical agents. Navidea is developing multiple precision diagnostic products and platforms, including NAV4694, NAV5001, Manocept™ and NAV1800 (RIGScan™), to help identify the sites and pathways of undetected disease and enable better diagnostic accuracy, clinical decision-making and, ultimately, patient care. Lymphoseek® (technetium 99m tilmanocept) Injection, Navidea’s first commercial product from the Manocept platform, was approved by the FDA in March 2013. Navidea’s strategy is to deliver superior growth and shareholder return by bringing to market novel radiopharmaceutical agents and advancing the Company’s pipeline through selective acquisitions, global partnering and commercialization efforts. For more information, please visit www.navidea.com.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the Act) provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the Company. Statements in this news release, which relate to other than strictly historical facts, such as statements about the Company’s plans and strategies, expectations for future financial performance, new and existing products and technologies, anticipated clinical and regulatory pathways, and markets for the Company’s products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof. Investors are cautioned that such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical or anticipated results due to many factors including, but not limited to, the Company’s continuing operating losses, uncertainty of market acceptance of its products, reliance on third party manufacturers, accumulated deficit, future capital needs, uncertainty of capital funding, dependence on limited product line and distribution channels, competition, limited marketing and manufacturing experience, risks of development of new products, regulatory risks and other risks detailed in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals
Brent Larson, 614-822-2330
Executive VP & CFO
or
Sharon Correia, 978-655-2686
Associate Director, Corporate Communications

Source: Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.