Unigene Receives 2012 Drug Delivery Partnerships Industry Achievement Award

BOONTON, N.J., Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Unigene Laboratories, Inc. (OTCBB: UGNE) today announced that it has received the 2012 Drug Delivery Partnerships™ ("DDP") Innovation Award in the Industry Achievement category in recognition of the Company's 2011 clinical advances in the oral delivery of peptides. 

This year's DDP Award recipients were voted on and selected by conference attendees, including leading scientists, pharmaceutical executives and drug delivery key opinion leaders, at the 16th annual DDP conference, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 25-27 2012.  This industry achievement award honors Unigene as the Company that has made the greatest contribution to the field of drug delivery throughout 2011.

Ashleigh Palmer, President and CEO, Unigene Laboratories, commented, "As the pharmaceutical industry's largest, longest running and most-respected drug delivery conference, acknowledgement from the DDP provides an exclamation point to Unigene's transformational 2011, which was marked by numerous business, clinical and technological successes." 

Dr. Nozer Mehta, Unigene's Vice President, Research and Development, said, "Among our achievements in 2011, Unigene saw two of its late-stage oral peptide programs successfully advance in the clinic and serve to validate our proprietary oral delivery technology platform; OSTORA™, our oral calcitonin licensed to Tarsa Therapeutics, successfully completed a pivotal Phase 3 study and is targeted for an NDA submission by year-end 2012 and our oral PTH analog, for which we reported a successful outcome in a Phase 2 study with statistically significant results at the end of 2011, and are currently seeking a licensing partner.  This progress not only marks major evolutionary steps in the administration of peptide-based therapeutics but is truly representative of the outstanding work by the entire Unigene team.  We are extremely honored to accept the 2012 Drug Delivery Partnerships Industry Achievement Award."

As the leader in the design, delivery, manufacture and development of peptide-based therapeutics Unigene is focused on advancing its own pipeline of novel, proprietary peptide product candidates focused on metabolic disease and inflammation as well as exploiting its industry-leading Peptelligence™ platform of peptide oral drug delivery and manufacturing assets, expertise and capabilities by building a robust portfolio of strategically partnered opportunities.

"We are very proud to have Unigene as the 2012 DDP Innovation Award recipient," remarked Heather King, Program Director, Drug Delivery Partnerships. "Based upon voter response, it is clear that Unigene has cemented itself as a true innovator in oral peptide delivery and, more broadly, throughout the drug development and delivery industry."

Palmer concluded, "Unigene is proud of what it has accomplished thus far, and we are very excited by the tremendous opportunities on our horizon. We are committed to extending our leadership position and continue to firmly establish Unigene as the peptide development partner-of-choice for pharmaceutical companies interested in capitalizing on the significant opportunities that orally delivered peptides offer in the treatment of numerous debilitating diseases.  Our goal is to continue to maximize our oral peptide development expertise, depth of technological know-how and intellectual property housed within our Peptelligence™ platform."

About Unigene Laboratories, Inc.
Unigene Laboratories, Inc. is a leader in the design, delivery, manufacture and development of peptide-based therapeutics. The Company is building a robust portfolio of proprietary partnerships in this expanding drug class based on its Peptelligence™ platform. Peptelligence encompasses extensive intellectual property covering delivery and manufacturing technologies, unsurpassed research and development expertise, and proprietary know-how representing a genuine distinctive competence. Core Peptelligence assets include proprietary oral and nasal peptide delivery technologies, and proprietary, high-yield, scalable and reproducible E. coli-based manufacturing technologies.

Safe Harbor statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to whether: Tarsa's efforts to seek FDA approval for OSTORA, including the possible timing of an NDA submission in the second half of 2012; Tarsa's use of the proceeds from its convertible promissory note and warrant financing; OSTORA's potential to become the first orally delivered peptide approved by the FDA; approval (if any) of OSTORA will further validate the Company's oral peptide drug delivery technology platform; the Company's investment in Tarsa will provide a meaningful return to Unigene that will ultimately benefit out stockholders; the Note acquired from Tarsa will be converted, accelerated and/or extended' the Warrant acquired from Tarsa will be exercised or adjusted; the Company will maintain a 20% stake in Tarsa or such stake will be subject to liquidation or dilution; the Company will receive any sales-related milestone payments and royalties on worldwide sales.  We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events, including our cash flow projections. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various risk factors. These known and unknown risk factors include, but are not limited to: the delay in obtaining or the failure to obtain regulatory approvals for our products and the products of our licensees that may generate royalty and milestone payments to us, our ability to achieve product sales and royalties, competition, our dependence on other companies to commercialize, manufacture and sell products using our technologies and our ability to enter into favorable new agreements with such companies, our ability to cut expenses and maintain efficiencies, our ability to enter into new financing arrangements,  the ability of our products to gain market acceptance and increase market share, the uncertainty of results of animal and human testing, the risk of product liability and liability for human clinical trials, our dependence on patents and other proprietary rights and the risks associated with patent litigation, dependence on key management officials, the availability and cost of capital, the availability of qualified personnel, changes in, or the failure to comply with, governmental regulations, general economic and business conditions, our history of losses and ability to achieve profitability, litigation and other risk factors discussed in our Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "potential," "continue," and variations of these words (or negatives of these words) or similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections, contingencies, goals, targets or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements and are not statements of historical fact. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States and the rules and regulations of the SEC, we are under no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Investor Contact:
Unigene Laboratories, Inc.
Jenene Thomas
VP, Investor Relations and Business Administration
973-265-1107
[email protected]

Media Contact:
Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Jason Rando / Andrew Mielach
212-827-0020
[email protected]  / [email protected]

SOURCE Unigene Laboratories, Inc.