AutoImmune, Inc. (AIMM) Initiates Strategic Alternatives Process; Company Retained Junewicz & Co. to Pursue All Strategic Option

AutoImmune, Inc. (AIMM) Initiates Strategic Alternatives Process; Company Retained Junewicz & Co. to Pursue All Strategic Options Available, Including, But Not Limited To, A Sale Or Merger

PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AutoImmune Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AIMM.OB - News) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the exploration of a full range of strategic alternatives available to the Company in order to enhance shareholder value. AutoImmune has retained Junewicz & Co. as its financial advisor for this evaluation process.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Robert C. Bishop, Ph.D. stated, "AutoImmune's Board of Directors believes that given the recently announced Phase III trial failure of dirucotide, the lead drug covered by AutoImmune's license agreement with BioMS Medical Corporation, it is appropriate and in the best interest of shareholders to retain Junewicz & Co. to explore and evaluate our strategic options. We have asked Junewicz & Co. to pursue all strategic options available to the Company, including, but not limited to, a sale or merger of the Company."

AutoImmune is a biopharmaceutical company involved in the development of treatments for autoimmune and cell-mediated inflammatory disease and conditions.

About Junewicz & Co.

Junewicz & Co. (www.junewicz.com) focuses on providing a full range of private investment banking services to companies in the Life Sciences Industry -- Biopharmaceutical and Medical Technology companies. Private investment banking services provided by Junewicz & Co. include providing advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic alternatives and licensing transactions and acting as agent on private placements of equity securities. Junewicz & Co. was founded in 1990 by former Merrill Lynch Managing Director J. Mark Junewicz and is located in New York City.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include statements about the strategic alternatives process and clinical trials and studies. You can identify these forward-looking statements because they involve our expectations, beliefs, projections, anticipations or other characterizations of future events or circumstances. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of any number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to our ability to successfully pursue strategic alternatives, the uncertainties of clinical trial results, AutoImmune's dependence on third parties for licensing revenue, and the risks of technological change and competition. These factors are more fully discussed, as are other factors, in AutoImmune's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the section entitled "Risk Factors." We have no plans, and disclaim any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or other factors, except as required by law.