Tuesday, 19 April 2005.  Melbourne, Australia - Meditech Research Limited (ASX: MTR), a biotechnology company developing new cancer therapies, announced that its Research Director, Associate Professor Tracey Brown, gave three presentations this past week at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2005 annual conference. The AACR conference is one of the world's pre-eminent forums for the release of data on new cancer therapies.

The AACR is a professional society of more than 24,000 laboratory and clinical scientists engaged in basic, translational, and clinical cancer research in the United States and more than 60 other countries. Its annual meeting is attended by more than 15,000 scientists from around the world who share new and significant discoveries in the cancer field. The 2005 conference finishes tomorrow in Anaheim, California.

The data presented by Associate Professor Brown described various aspects of Meditech's HyACT(TM) drug delivery platform, including pre-clinical and clinical data for three of Meditech's products: HyCAMP(TM), HyDOX(TM) and HyFIVE(TM). The data demonstrate that HyACT(TM) formulation of anti-cancer drugs results in preferential targeting of the drugs to tumour sites, thereby improving drug safety and effectiveness.

Associate Professor Brown also presented data on a new target for the inhibition of breast cancer progression, HA synthase (HAS) 2. HAS2 was identified as an important marker for tumour invasiveness as part of the research activities into the role of hyaluronic acid in cancer undertaken by Associate Professor Brown's laboratory at Monash University.

According to Associate Professor Brown, Meditech's presentations were well received by conference delegates, which included international scientists, clinicians and representatives of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. "The novelty, clinical value and commercial relevance of formulating toxic drugs with Meditech's HyACT(TM) drug delivery technology created a great deal of enthusiasm," she said.

"Presentation of Meditech data at major international meetings like AACR is one component of our overall strategy for raising the company's profile and increasing the awareness of our technology," said Dr Ian Nisbet, Meditech's CEO.

About Meditech

Meditech is an Australian biotechnology company focused on developing and commercialising drugs that improve the health and quality of life of patients with cancer and other chronic diseases. The company has internationally recognised expertise in carbohydrate-based therapies, particularly products based upon the glycosaminoglycan, hyaluronic acid. Building on this expertise, Meditech has created its patented HyACT(TM) (Hyaluronic Acid Chemotransport Technology) platform which it is applying to the development of improved formulations of cancer drugs. The lead product from the HyACT(TM) platform is HyCAMP(TM). In addition to HyCAMP(TM), Meditech has taken the anti-cancer products HyDOX(TM) (doxorubicin and hyaluronic acid) and HyFIVE(TM) (5-fluorouracil and hyaluronic acid) into clinical testing.

About HyCAMP(TM)

HyCAMP(TM) is Meditech's proprietary formulation of irinotecan (CamptosarR) with hyaluronic acid, which is currently in Phase II clinical testing in metastatic colorectal cancer patients. It has previously been tested in a 12-patient, uncontrolled Phase I study, the interim results of which were presented at the 29th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology

(ESMO) in October 2004. Although the number of patients in the Phase I study was not sufficient to draw any firm conclusions, treatment with HyCAMP(TM) showed a trend towards improved safety with maintained efficacy.

For more information:

Dr Ian Nisbet, CEO

Phone: (03) 9296 2027

Mobile: 0431 709 121

Associate Professor Tracey Brown, Research Director

Phone: (03) 9905 3760

Mobile: 0412 010 104