OxyFile #419

LifeTECH Invited to Address Third Annual Blood Safety & Screening 
Conference


TORONTO, April 16 1997 - LifeTECH Corporation today announced that 
Dr. Peter Lea, LifeTECH's Director of Research & Development, has 
been invited to address the prestigious Third Annual Blood Safety 
& Screening Conference in Washington, D.C. from April 14-16, 1997. 
Dr. Lea's presentation, entitled "Controlled Oxidative Stress 
Inactivation of Virus", will describe the dramatic advances 
achieved by LifeTECH's Sterinetics(TM) System in the sterilization 
of blood and blood products.

In making the announcement, Mr. Walter J. Dermott, President and 
CEO of LifeTECH, said "Over the last year, twelve abstracts 
describing LifeTECH's innovative research and development have 
been peer-reviewed and accepted by leading international 
scientific bodies. Dr. Lea's upcoming address to the Blood Safety 
and Screening Conference takes us to the next level in 
highlighting and validating our continuing scientific successes. 
Dr. Lea will describe the scientific basis for the Sterinetics 
System to become the only viable solution to the serious viral and 
bacterial contamination in the global blood supply. LifeTECH is 
now positioned to move centre stage in the global blood supply 
crisis and the $6-$10 billion worldwide marketplace for blood 
product sterilization"

LifeTECH's Sterinetics System uses controlled oxidative stress to 
inactivate viruses and bacteria in blood components such as red 
blood cells, serum, plasma, platelets and intravenous products. 
LifeTECH research has confirmed inactivation of greater than 6 
logs/ml of lipid coated viruses in Red Blood Cells and both lipid 
and non-lipid coated viruses in Intravenous Immunoglobulin. 
Specific viruses inactivated by the Sterinetics System include 
Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, which is virtually identical to the 
Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus, which 
models the human Hepatitis C virus, Infectious Bovine 
Rhinotracheitis (IBR) which is a large herpes virus, and the much 
smaller Adenovirus, which is a respiratory virus found in both 
human and bovine species.

The Blood Safety and Screening Conference was initially organized 
to respond to the threat of contamination of the global blood 
supply by viral and bacterial agents. Major topics at this year's 
conference include current infectious disease risks, the emergence 
of uncommon infectious diseases that pose a risk to the blood 
supply (Chagas and Malaria, parasitic diseases, Dengue Fever and 
Ebola), and new technologies to deal with these problems. Dr. Lea 
has been invited to be the first speaker in the "New Technologies" 
portion of the conference. The conference is attended by the 
world's leading researchers and scientists in blood safety, and by 
major international blood agencies, blood product manufacturers 
and governmental agencies.