RIDGEFIELD, N.J., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Endre A. Balazs, chief
executive officer and chief scientific officer of Biomatrix, Inc.
(Nasdaq: BIOX), was honored for his pioneering research on hyaluronan with a
symposium in his name organized by Professor Torvard C. Laurent of Uppsala
University and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation at the Wenner-Gren
Center in Stockholm, Sweden. This symposium to honor Dr. Balazs, which was
held from September 18 through September 21, reviewed the chemistry, biology
and medical applications of hyaluronan and its derivatives, and was attended
by more than 100 research scientists and physicians from around the world.
The proceedings of the symposium will be published by Portland Press, London,
UK.
Dr. Balazs began his research on the intercellular matrix, and its key
component, hyaluronan, in the early 1940s as a medical student in Budapest.
He continued his research on the structure and function of hyaluronan in
Sweden at the Wenner-Gren Institute and the Karolinska Institute (Medical
School of Stockholm). For 25 years he was affiliated with Harvard University,
and then for 10 years was a research professor at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York.
In 1968, while in Boston, he founded his first biotechnology company which
developed, manufactured and introduced the first ultrapure hyaluronan products
worldwide as medical therapeutic agents. Since 1983, Dr. Balazs has continued
his work in his second biotechnology company, Biomatrix, developing the first
elastoviscous hyaluronan derivatives, called hylans, for a broad spectrum of
medical therapeutic applications.
Stated Dr. Balazs, "I am very grateful to my good friend and former co-
worker, Professor Torvard Laurent, for organizing this meeting in my honor.
This was the first symposium on hyaluronan and its derivatives where the
discussion on the medical use of these molecules was at the forefront of the
meeting. The presentations and discussion by an international group of
researchers and physicians stimulated a great interest in a broad spectrum of
therapeutic applications in medicine."
The Wenner-Gren Center was established in 1962 to provide a facility where
scientists worldwide could come to collaborate with Swedish colleagues,
conduct research at Swedish institutions, and participate at scientific
symposia and conferences.
Biomatrix, Inc., headquartered in Ridgefield, New Jersey, is an
international biomedical company that develops, manufactures and
commercializes products made from a series of proprietary hylan biological
polymers used in therapeutic medical applications and in skin care products.
CONTACT: Rory A. Riggs, President of Biomatrix, Inc., 201-945-9550
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