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Anavex Life Sciences Corp. Outlines Its Central Nervous System (CNS) Portfolio of Novel Therapeutics

Market Wire - February 01, 2007 12:19 PM ET -- Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (OTCBB: AVXL) (the "Company") announces its strategic vision for growth by discovering and developing cutting-edge drugs against neurological diseases.

The Company's innovative drug discovery and development programs have helped build a strong pipeline that targets a range of serious neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Epilepsy and Depression, demonstrating a unique mode of action.

Over 30 development candidates and several backup series of compounds fill in Anavex's pipeline with four lead development projects in neurological diseases.

Anavex's drug candidates have demonstrated strong affinity for a fairly new class of receptors, (sigma receptors), involved in the modulation of multiple cellular biochemical signaling pathways.

Alzheimer's disease lead product candidate, AE14, is a new tetrahydrofuranic compound with a new mode of action. In preclinical studies, AE14, has exhibited a mixed pharmacological activity involving muscarinic and sigma-1 components showing prominent anti-amnesic and neuroprotective potentials. In Alzheimer's Disease (AD) animal models, AE14 reversed the short and long term memory deficits, induced by scopolamine, dozocilpine (MK-801) or Beta 25-35 amyloid (Neuroscience 2006, October 14 - 18th , Atlanta, U.S., poster session, Julie Espallergues, Priscilla Lepalud, Alexandre Vamvakides, and Tanqui Maurice).

Anavex is currently conducting a series of animal studies in order to further assess AE14 and related derivatives with disease modifying potentials.

Epilepsy lead product candidates, AN2/AVex73 (AE 37) and its active metabolite AN19/AVex144 (AE 37-met), are new tetrahydrofuranic compounds which have demonstrated physical and/or functional links to sigma-receptors, sodium channels and NMDA receptors as well as components of the inflammatory and apoptotic signalling system in the neurons.

Depression lead product candidate, AN11/AVex141 is a new tetrahydrofuranic compound which has exhibited a multiple pharmacological activity involving serotoninergic, sigma-1 and sodium channel components suggesting a prototype mechanism of action and a new generation of antidepressants.