Franc-Or Resources Corporation: FDA Grants Urrma IDE Approval for Anti-R7V Diagnostic Kit as Determinant for Progressor/Non-Progressor to AIDS

Franc-Or Resources Corporation: FDA Grants Urrma IDE Approval for Anti-R7V Diagnostic Kit as Determinant for Progressor/Non-Progressor to AIDS

Business Wire - October 7, 2002

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 2002--Franc-Or Resources Corporation (TSX:FOR) is pleased to announce that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval of Urrma Biopharma Inc.'s Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application for the Anti-R7V Diagnostic Kit. This is equivalent to a Phase Two approval in the more commonly used terminology pertaining to FDA pharmaceutical drug regulations, and will allow Urrma to proceed with the Pre-Market Approval (PMA) clinical studies (Phase Three equivalent).

Urrma, headed by its President and C.E.O., Dr. Michel Fallet, is a private biotech company. It is based in Montreal with a P-3 level research lab located in Marseille, France. This research facility is run by Urrma's Chief Scientist and Director of Research, Prof. Jean-Claude Chermann, the co-discoverer of the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Franc-Or is Urrma's largest shareholder, currently holding an approximate 25% equity position in the company.

The key to the proprietary technology that URRMA has obtained is Professor Chermann's discovery of the anti-R7V antibody that is found to be present in significant amounts in people who had been exposed to the HIV virus, but who had not progressed into the AIDS disease. The R7V epitope, to which the antibody combines, is acquired by the HIV virus while budding from an infected cell. When the anti-R7V antibody adheres to the R7V epitope on its surface, the structure of the HIV envelope is changed in such a way that it prevents the virus from entering healthy immune system cells. The HIV virus is thereby neutralized.

The diagnostic kit can determine if someone who has been exposed to the HIV virus is likely to progress into the AIDS disease, thereby helping the attending physician in deciding whether or not to prescribe the current cocktail of anti-AIDS drugs, as well as helping the patient in deciding whether or not to accept the high cost and health risks inherent with these drugs. A large market is expected in North America and Europe as part of a potential overall worldwide AIDS diagnostic market of $1 billion. The kits could be commercially available in the United States by mid 2003, assuming that the PMA application is submitted to the FDA before December 31, 2002, and that full approval for commercialization is obtained within the normal six-month period. Clinical trials that will be evaluated in the PMA process have begun, and will continue through the end of this year.

Additional information on URRMA's diagnostic and therapeutic products can be found on their web site: www.urrma.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of Franc-Or, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Franc-Or's expectations are the risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by Franc-Or with securities regulators.

CONTACT: Franc-Or Resources Corporation Robert J. Casaceli, 514/842-5323 514/842-3306 (FAX)

SOURCE: Franc-Or Resources Corporation

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