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Life Therapeutics to Create Separate Company for Gels & Laboratory Gradiflow

Posted on: Friday, 24 March 2006, 12:00 CST

Life Therapeutics (ASX:LFE) announces its plan to consolidate its Life Gels Division and the Laboratory Gradiflow component of its Life Manufacturing Division into a separately listed public company. This action is consistent with comments made at the Company's Annual General Meeting in November 2005.

"The Board has evaluated the overall fit of the Gels Division and the laboratory Gradiflow with our goal of becoming a Manufacturer of Niche Therapeutics and decided that they are not currently aligned with the goals and aspirations of the company," said Dr. Jim Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Life Therapeutics. "The company considered several options and decided the most valuable return to our shareholders is to consolidate these divisions into a separately listed company where all current shareholders would receive a pro rata shareholding. The consolidation will also include the Sperm Sorter project, which is progressing well and supported by a Australian Federal Government Grant, and fits with the overall direction of the newly consolidated organization."

It is expected that this new company will include the Gels Division, the laboratory scale Gradiflow and the Sperm Sorter application of the Gradiflow technology. Life Therapeutics will retain all of the large scale Gradiflow technology for future manufacturing projects or opportunities.

"This move has many positive outcomes for Life Therapeutics including the removal of costs pertaining to the maintenance of a non-core division in relation to our focused strategy and direction," said Dr. Hari Nair, Managing Director and CEO of Life Therapeutics. "Once this spinout is completed Life Therapeutics will have a minimal Australian operations and this will save the company over A$700,000 annually. In addition the Gels Division has made significant strides towards achieving profitability over the last 6 months and as a stand alone organization will be able to reach profitability faster and have a more focused approach to attaining a higher global market share," he added.

Shareholders will be advised of more details as they become available over the next few months.

About Life Therapeutics

Life Therapeutics is an international company with 444 employees, located in Australia and the United States with manufacturing operations in both countries and fourteen plasma donor centers in eight American states. Life Therapeutics recently established its U.S. American Depositary Receipt (ADR) Level I program which enables trading in Life Therapeutics shares by U.S. based investors and is an important step toward the company's ultimate objective of achieving a full listing on NASDAQ stock exchange.

The company's four divisions are all headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and include: Life Sera, Life Gels, Life Diagnostics, and Life Manufacturing.

Life Sera collects specialty plasma, including Anti-D and Hepatitis B from a donor base of more than 5,000 in fourteen U.S. collection centers. The plasma is then sold to blood fractionators who process it into hyperimmune therapeutic products.

Life Gels offers pre-cast gels for use in biological research and diagnostic testing, including a variety of electrophoresis systems. It also offers ultra-sensitive and rapid stains, molecular weight markers, and specially formulated buffers.

Life Diagnostics provides highly specific diagnostic tests for blood-clotting disorders and source plasma products for blood-borne diseases. Technologies include specialized blood coagulation tests to predict the risk of thrombosis and bleeding disorders. It also collects high-titer source plasma and serum used to make diagnostic kits.

Life Manufacturing incorporates the Gradiflow(TM) technology with the manufacture of therapeutic and diagnostic products. Gradiflow(TM) is a patented process that simultaneously purifies proteins and removes all viral pathogens, and infectious prion proteins.

For more information, visit our website at www.life-therapeutics.com.

Source: Business Wire

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