BioTime's Hextend May Help Resolve Blood Shortage Crisis.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 27, 2000

BioTime, Inc. (AMEX:BTX) announced today that Hextend(R), BioTime's proprietary physiologically-balanced plasma volume expander currently in use in hundreds of leading hospitals throughout the U.S., could help alleviate some of the problems facing the nation due to a contraction in the pool of available blood donors.

Plasma volume expanders are solutions used to replace blood volume lost during surgery. In a televised interview broadcast last Friday at 5 p.m. by station KNTV on Channel 11 in San Jose, Calif., Dr. Tom Shaughnessy, of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, was quoted as saying that his patients required less blood because of Hextend.

"One of the most important techniques which can lessen the need for donor blood in the operating room is acute normovolemic hemodilution, or ANH," said Dr. Paul Segall, BioTime's chairman and chief executive officer. "ANH generally involves removing one to three units of a patient's blood (or more in special situations) immediately prior to surgery, and replacing it with an appropriate surgical fluid. When the patient loses blood volume during surgery, this autologous blood, just taken from the patient, is returned. Devices called cell savers can also be used to harvest blood lost to body cavities during bleeding."

"BioTime's Hextend is now being used in some medical centers to treat hypovolemia (blood volume loss) during surgical procedures in which ANH is also used. Since Hextend is completely synthetic and sterilized under pressure, it may be less risky than using blood or blood-derived products," said Dr. Segall.

BioTime, headquartered in Berkeley, Calif., develops blood plasma volume expanders, blood replacement solutions for hypothermic (low temperature) surgery, organ preservation solutions and technology for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment, and other applications. Information about BioTime can be found on the Web at www.biotimeinc.com.

The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the results of clinical trials of BioTime products; BioTime's ability to obtain FDA and foreign regulatory approval to market its products; competition from products manufactured and sold or being developed by other companies; the price of and demand for BioTime's products; BioTime's ability to negotiate favorable licensing or other manufacturing and marketing agreements for its products; the availability of ingredients used in BioTime products; and the availability of reimbursement for the cost of BioTime products (and related treatment) from government health administration authorities, private health coverage insurers and other organizations. These and other risk factors are discussed in BioTime's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.