HAIFA, Israel, Feb. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (PSTI) (TASE:PLTR), a leading developer of placenta-based cell therapies, today announced the appointments of two of its senior executives. These executive appointments support the Company’s growth and opportunities both on the clinical development front and with its big-pharma corporate partnerships. This comes at a time when Pluristem is advancing its cell therapies for numerous indications through global clinical trials.

Yaky Yanay has been promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Yanay joined Pluristem in 2006, serving as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer in charge of financial strategy. Since March of 2012, Mr. Yanay has also served as the Company’s Executive Vice President. Mr. Yanay is a member of the board of directors of Israel Advanced Technologies Industries, the largest umbrella organization in Israel for companies, organizations, and individuals in the high tech and life science sectors. Mr. Yanay holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in business administration and accounting, and he is a Certified Public Accountant in Israel.

Boaz Gur-Lavie has been appointed to the position of Chief Financial Officer and Secretary. Mr. Gur-Lavie recently joined Pluristem, serving as the Company’s Vice President of Finance. Prior to joining Pluristem, Mr. Gur-Lavie was CFO of Abbott Informatics Division, responsible for different Abbott informatics brands and STARLIMS, a global software organization which helps laboratories optimize data accessibility, integrity, defensibility and long-term value. Before that, he served as VP Finance of STARLIMS, a software company traded on the NASDAQ and Tel-Aviv stock exchange prior to being acquired by Abbott. Mr. Gur-Lavie previously served as assistant controller at ECI. Prior to which he served as a senior manager on the ERS team of Deloitte Israel. He has also served as a lecturer at Ben Gurion University. Mr. Gur-Lavie holds a master’s degree in finance and a bachelor’s degree in economy and accounting from the University of Ben-Gurion. He is a Certified Public Accountant in Israel.

“Both Yaky and Boaz bring tremendous value to the Company and these appointments are very well-deserved. Their proven leadership skills, their strategic choices and their implementation of operational goals will take Pluristem to the next level of achievement,” stated Zami Aberman, Chairman and CEO of Pluristem. “Our entire scientific, manufacturing, and operational team has done a phenomenal job of advancing our cell therapies to serve unmet medical needs.”

Yaky Yanay, Pluristem’s President and COO commented, “In the last year we were focused on building our manufacturing capabilities and our technology’s competitive advantages. Now, following the strengthening of our executive and management team, our Company is ready and set to meet the significant opportunities ahead for the benefit of our shareholders, business partners and our employees.”

HAIFA, Israel, Feb. 3, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (PSTI) (TASE:PLTR), a leading developer of placenta-based cell therapies, today announced that the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), will commence a mechanism-of-action study of Pluristem’s PLacental eXpanded RAD (PLX-RAD) cells for the treatment of acute radiation syndrome (ARS). The study aims to investigate the effect of PLX-RAD cells on body weight, blood count parameters, cytokine concentrations and bone marrow or spleen cellularity at various time points following the administration of PLX-RAD cells to animals receiving total body irradiation. The study is scheduled to begin in February 2014.

Following positive data from NIAID’s first study of PLX-RAD cells on irradiated animals’ hematological systems, Pluristem had announced on July 18th, 2013 NIAID’s intention to expand the scope of its PLX-RAD research. NIAID’s initial work showed that the overall survival of irradiated rodents treated with PLX-RAD cells significantly increased compared to that of the control group.

“In this study, NIAID will expand the focus of its work to better understand the mechanism-of- action of PLX-RAD cells. We are pleased that NIAID has recognized the therapeutic potential of these cells in treating ARS,” stated Zami Aberman, Chairman and CEO of Pluristem.

Pluristem has a preclinical hematology program in which the company is evaluating PLX-RAD cells in the treatment of bone marrow failure following radio- or chemotherapy. Data from the NIAID studies are expected to be beneficial to our hematology program.

ARS studies of PLX-RAD cells also have been conducted by Prof. Raphael Gorodetsky, lead investigator of the study and head of the Biotechnology and Radiobiology Laboratory at the Sharett Institute of Oncology at the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center. Those studies showed an up to four-fold increase in the survival rate of irradiated animals treated with PLX cells versus those treated with placebo, as well as improvements in additional parameters. The preclinical results for PLX-RAD cells have been published in peer reviewed journal PLOS ONE.

About Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS)

ARS represents a constellation of signs and symptoms that occur between several minutes and several weeks after exposure to high doses of ionizing radiation. ARS involves multiple organs, including the hematological and gastrointestinal systems. The hematological syndrome follows damage to the bone marrow and is characterized by severe decreases in red and white blood cell and platelet counts, which can lead to infection, bleeding and death. The gastrointestinal syndrome follows radiation-induced damage of the gastrointestinal tract and results in infection, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, which can lead to death within two weeks.

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwired – Feb 4, 2014) – Developer of the only payment card to combine EMV chips with fingerprint technology, SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCQB: SMME), provided data today on technologies essential to reducing growing credit card fraud. According to Aite Group, card fraud already costs the card payment industry, primarily issuers, $8.6 billion a year in the U.S. and industry experts are concerned losses will rise as more fraud migrates to the U.S. from smart card-enabled countries.

The U.S. is on a magnetic stripe card system, which is less secure than smartcards which are chip-enabled. EMV chips, which are built into smart payment cards, contain embedded microprocessors that provide strong transaction security features, and other application capabilities not possible with traditional magnetic stripe cards. Most chips are activated by PINs. SmartMetric’s card is the only one to add an extra layer of security by using the card owner’s fingerprint to active the chip.

Point of sale terminals also need to be EMV capable in order to read the smartcards and complete a transaction. According to the Smart Card Alliance, the U.S. is one of the last countries to migrate to EMV. In parts of Europe, 95% of terminals were EMV chip-enabled; 79% in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean; 77% in Africa and the Middle East; and 51% in Asia Pacific.

“The U.S. is adopting EMV chip cards to defend itself from fraud. The 1.5 billion credit cards currently issued in the U.S. will need to be replaced. What puts SmartMetric’s card at the forefront of fraud fighting technologies is the fact that our card combines EMV chips with the smallest fingerprint technology in the world. Fingerprint technology is the next new frontier in payment system security and we believe the incentives for its adoption are quite compelling,” stated SmartMetric CEO Chaya Hendrick.

A recent Marketwatch article states that according to MasterCard, counterfeit fraud decreased by 60% to 80% in markets where chip technology was installed. Discover Financial Services reports that as the EU has completed its migration to EMV, the region has seen an 80% reduction in credit card fraud while the U.S. has witnessed a 47% increase. The Smart Card Alliance also states that American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa have all announced their roadmaps for moving to EMV in the U.S.

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwired – Jan 31, 2014) – SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCQB: SMME), a developer of patented payment card technologies and the first biometrically protected bitcoin payment card, today announced that its soon-to-launch SmartMetric Biometric Bitcoin Card™ can help further accelerate bitcoin’s adoption and usage rates. SmartMetric’s card is the world’s first biometric, fingerprint secured, off-line storage platform for bitcoins. It makes using bitcoins as easy as using a standard debit or credit card that is tied to the dollar or any other traditional currency.

According to numbers published by www.bitcoinwatch.com the past daily average of bitcoins traded was 359, 846 which equates to a daily trading US dollar transaction value of $287, 876, 800 per day. This already is greater than Western Union’s $216,000,000 and fast approaching PayPal’s $397,000,000 estimated daily transaction volume.

“In the next one or two years, bitcoin can surpass the dollar transaction volumes of other established payments companies including Discover, and even American Express, MasterCard, and Visa,” stated SmartMetric CEO Chaya Hendrick. “Cards from the largest payment card companies can’t be used for very large dollar value transactions such as buying and selling cars and homes. Bitcoin can and is. Bitcoin is an all pervasive payments system suitable for anything from micro-purchases to seven-figure ticket items. This means it has the potential within a short period of time to transact daily and annual dollar volume amounts that eclipse today’s payments giants, Visa and MasterCard. By making spending bitcoins even easier, our SmartMetric Biometric Bitcoin Card™ can contribute to this phenomenon.”

The Market Cap as of today based on the latest price of Bitcoin is $9, 867, 023, 336 USD.

“An analysis of these charts shows that the number of daily bitcoin transactions has been less volatile than the bitcoin transaction volume in terms of dollars. This points to the use of bitcoin accelerating in a more consistent way than most people realize. When combined with large ticket purchases, this can really have an impact on how quickly bitcoin can surpass established payment systems,” Hendrick added.

VIENNA, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE MKT: CVM) announced today the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD), has approved the start of a Phase I dose escalation study of the Company’s investigational immunotherapy Multikine* (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) in HIV/HPV co-infected men and women with peri-anal warts. This approval marks the third indication for which Multikine is being investigated in clinical trials. Multikine is currently being investigated in the largest Phase III trial in the world for the treatment of head and neck cancer. It has previously been evaluated as a potential treatment for cervical dysplasia in HIV/HPV co-infected women and a Phase II study to further investigate this indication is currently in the planning stages.

The Phase I dose escalation study is being funded and conducted through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between the U.S. Navy and CEL-SCI. CEL-SCI will contribute the investigational immunotherapy drug Multikine, will retain all rights to any currently owned technology and will have the right to exclusively license any new technology developed from the collaboration. By entering into this CRADA, NMCSD does not directly or indirectly endorse any product or service provided, or to be provided, by CEL-SCI, its successors, assignees, or licensees.

Anal and genital warts are commonly associated with the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted disease. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has named HPV the 4th largest health threat the U.S. will face in 2014. According to the CDC, 360,000 people in the U.S. get genital warts each year. Persistent HPV infection in the anal region is thought to be responsible for up to 80% of anal cancers. HPV is an even more significant health problem in the HIV infected population as individuals are living longer as a result of greatly improved HIV medications, but are mostly unable to clear HPV due to their weakened immune system.

The Principle Investigator for the Phase I study is John D. Malone MD, MPH, Infectious Diseases Staff Physician, NMCSD. The purpose of this dose escalation study is to evaluate the safety and clinical impact of Multikine as a treatment of peri-anal warts and assess the effect on anal intraepithelial dysplasia (AIN) in HIV/HPV co-infected men and women.

According to Dr. Malone, the immunologic agent Multikine has potential to improve the clinical treatment of HPV lesions that are associated with cancer. The NMCSD Clinical Investigation Department has a robust spectrum of research ongoing, participating in over 400 research studies/trials annually with the hope of advancing medical treatment and improving quality of life for patients.

NMCSD, a referral center of excellence for HIV/AIDS care of active duty, family members, and retired individuals since the start of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s, has conducted over 30 HIV/AIDS human subjects approved clinical research protocols to advance clinical patient care.

Multikine is being given to the HIV/HPV co-infected patients with peri-anal warts based on the results obtained in a Multikine Phase I study conducted at the University of Maryland in which the investigational therapy Multikine was given to HIV/HPV co-infected women with cervical dysplasia. In these subjects visual and histological evidence of clearance of lesions was observed. Elimination of a number of HPV strains was also determined by in situ polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed on tissue biopsy collected before and after Multikine treatment. The study investigators reported that the study volunteers in this study all appeared to tolerate the Multikine treatment with no reported serious adverse events. The treatment regimen for the study of up to 15 HIV/HPV co-infected patient volunteers with peri-anal warts to be conducted by NMCSD will be identical to the regimen that was used in the Multikine cervical study in HIV/HPV co-infected patient volunteers.

“Anal warts have become an increasing problem in the general population. Patients with anal warts who are co-infected with HIV/HPV have a 30-fold increased risk of developing anal cancer because their immune system is compromised,” stated CEL-SCI Chief Executive Officer Geert Kersten.

“Though this disease appears to be completely unrelated to head and neck cancer, our current Phase III lead indication, HPV has been implicated as a potential causative agent in both diseases. The virus is now thought to be a cause of many head and neck cancers, particularly in younger people in the U.S. In the anal warts study being conducted we hope to repeat the promising results seen in the study with HIV infected women with cervical dysplasia where we saw the elimination of many HPV strains following Multikine treatment,” Geert Kersten added.