BioTime's Pre-clinical Studies Indicate Replacing Blood Volume May Advance Ultra-cold Surgery, Critical Care and Detoxification.

Business Editors/Health and Medical Writers

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 12, 2000

BioTime, Inc. (BTX-AMEX) announced today that it will present data from animal experiments involving complete replacement of the circulating blood volume with Hextend(R), and its potential medical implications, at an upcoming symposium. In one set of experiments, replacing all the circulating blood at near-freezing body temperatures allowed recovery even after extended periods of cardiac and circulatory arrest in a variety of animals from rodents to primates.

In a second group of studies, treatment with hyperbaric oxygen (100% oxygen at greater than atmospheric pressures) allowed survival after all, or nearly all, of the blood of rats was replaced with Hextend. Numerous medical centers have hyperbaric oxygen chambers which are used clinically.

After appropriate clinical testing, surgical procedures based on these studies could target such conditions as aneurysms of the aorta and brain, serious trauma involving multiple injuries and very heavy bleeding, and the elimination of blood-borne pathogens or poisons by total body washout.

The results of these and other experiments are scheduled to be presented at the upcoming meeting of the American Society of Extra-Corporeal Technology, a professional society of perfusionists. Perfusionists manage equipment used during cardiopulmonary bypass operations in which the patient's blood is mechanically circulated by external pumps replacing the function of the beating heart. The meeting will be held on November 9-12, 2000 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hextend is BioTime's proprietary physiologically balanced blood plasma volume expander currently used to treat hypovolemia (loss of blood volume) in hundreds of leading U.S. hospitals.

"These experiments indicate that total or near-total replacement of the circulating blood with Hextend can be tolerated in animals under a variety of environmental conditions involving variations in temperature, pressure and oxygen concentrations." said Dr. Paul Segall, BioTime's chairman and chief executive officer. "Following appropriate clinical testing, these innovations may open up treatment options in surgery and critical care medicine which were formerly impossible."

BioTime, headquartered in Berkeley, California 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.