Thursday, July 29, 2010, 2:00pm IDT

OCS Approves 2nd Year of Ovarian Cancer R&D Grant

Jerusalem, Israel -- BioCancell Therapeutics Inc. (TASE:BICL) today announced that the Office of the Chief Scientist ("OCS") of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, had approved a grant for the second year of the research and development plan for the drug candidate BC-819, as a treatment for ovarian cancer.

The grant includes participation in 60% of approved expenses incurred in Israel, up to a limit of NIS 3,371,000 (approximately $875,000), and participation in 30% of approved expenses incurred outside of Israel, up to a limit of NIS 1,838,000 (approximately $478,000). These limits may be subject to adjustment as a result of the budgeting policy of the OCS. The approval of the grant is subject to the terms set forth under the Law for the Encouragement of Industrial Research and Development, 1984, which includes the payment of royalties derived from income from the use of BC-819, and the obligation to repay the funds received (with interest and linkage to the CPI), if the project is terminated without authorization from the OCS, and the latter demands the return of funds.

The grant will be used to advance the Phase I/IIa clinical trial of BC-819 as a treatment for ovarian cancer. It comes in addition to previous OCS grants to develop BC-819 as a treatment for superficial bladder cancer, and a grant by the American-Israeli BIRD (Bi-national Industrial Research and Development) Foundation to develop BC-819 as a treatment for pancreatic cancer.

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About BioCancell

BioCancell is a biopharmaceuticals company that specializes in the development of Targeted Cancer Therapies for the treatment of numerous types of cancer. The Company's technology offers a safe and long-term treatment of cancer, with no adverse effects.

BioCancell was co-founded in 2004 by Professor Avraham Hochberg, Professor of Molecular Biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, based on technology developed by him over the past 20 years.

The drug candidates developed by the Company are targeted and their goal is to selectively destroy the cancer cells without affecting healthy cells (‘Targeted Cancer Therapy'). The approach is based on the identification of target genes, such as H19, that are expressed only in cancerous tumors, and not in healthy cells, and on the use of those genes for the activation of a toxin inside the cancerous cells only, thus destroying them without harming healthy cells. BioCancell's leading drug candidate, BC-819, is now in a Phase IIb clinical trial for the treatment of bladder carcinoma, and in Phase I/IIa trials for the treatment of pancreatic and ovarian cancer.

For more information, please visit http://www.biocancell.com.

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements with respect to the further development and potential safety and efficacy of BC-819, in the treatment of superficial bladder cancer and BioCancell's development strategy. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the results of BioCancell to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements, including, among others, the risk that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may require changes to the protocols and informed consents for clinical trials of BC-819, which changes may have a material adverse effect on the timing of, and BioCancell's ability to conduct, those clinical trials, risks related to the clinical advancement of its BC-819 plasmid, including, but not limited, to the risk that clinical trials for this product candidate may not demonstrate safety and efficacy sufficient to obtain the requisite regulatory approvals or to result in a marketable product and risks related to the potential for others to develop products containing or based on BC-819. BioCancell does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.