Press Release

October 13, 2004

On October 13, 2004 the Charlottesville, VA biotechnology company ContraVac, Inc. received Virginia's Small Business Innovation Research Commercialization Breakthrough Award at Virginia's 10th Annual SBIR Conference in Arlington, VA. The award recognized ContraVac's achievements in demonstrating significant commercialization potential of technology developed under a SBIR award from the National Institutes of Health. The company is located on the University of Virginia grounds in the laboratory facilities of Spinner Technology, Inc., an incubator for UVA technology transfer and an arm of the University of Virginia Patents Foundation. ContraVac's proprietary technologies are patented by UVA and licensed from the Patents Foundation.

ContraVac's technology has spun out of the Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health in the UVA Medical School Department of Cell Biology, which cooperated on the SBIR funded study. The company logo: "Putting the Science of Reproduction to Work" typifies products that are being developed. These include SpermCheck®, a line of point-of-care male fertility tests for use at home or in the clinic. ContraVac is also developing a new generation spermicide called SpermStat which uses monoclonal antibodies as opposed to current spermicides which use potentially harmful detergents.

The SpermCheck Vasectomy and SpermCheck Contraception tests use monoclonal antibodies to detect low numbers of sperm. These tests aid men in determining when they become infertile after receiving a vasectomy and while taking a male contraceptive. For couples that might suspect infertility, the SpermCheck Fertility test will detect if the problem lies with the male, which is true in 40% of infertility cases. "By recognizing the male as the source of infertility early in the process of dealing with suspected infertility, the SpermCheck Fertility test will improve female reproductive health by reducing unnecessary fertility testing of women," noted Ed Leary, President and CFO of ContraVac.

At the award ceremony, Dr. John Herr, Director of the Center, said the award was based on many years of dedicated research by a host of individuals. Basic scientists conducted fundamental research to mine the human genome for novel genes and their encoding proteins that were found in human sperm. The researchers confirmed that certain sperm proteins were biomarkers, proteins unique to the sperm and not found in any other tissue in the body. Patents on these biomarkers and their monoclonal antibodies were filed and translational researchers advanced these basic discoveries to develop quantitative tests that measured sperm. Soon thereafter a manufacturing company transferred the reagents into prototype plastic devices.

"It takes a village and teamwork to bring an idea to the marketplace and every component is essential: discovery, patenting, translation, finance, manufacturing, and marketing. ContraVac has been assisted in achieving these milestones through strategic partnerships with industry leaders to lay the pathway," Dr. Herr noted. "Stay tuned, you are going to hear a lot more from ContraVac in the months and years ahead and from the University of Virginia in the area of translational research."