Tengion's Neo ’Kidney Augment product candidate is designed to prevent or delay the need for dialysis or kidney transplant in patients with progressive CKD by enhancing functional kidney mass. By using the patient's own kidney cells, procured by a needle biopsy, the Company is developing a product candidate that is implanted into the failing kidney and catalyzes the regeneration of functional kidney tissue. Tengion will provide additional information on its product development plans to investors today at the Rodman & Renshaw Healthcare Conference and slides from that presentation will be available on the Company's website.  The Company also expects to share new data from an ongoing study of the Neo-Kidney Augment in a diabetic, obese, hypertensive animal model of renal failure at a meeting of the International Society for Cellular Therapy on September 28, 2010 in San Francisco and to announce the initial results from a study of large animals in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The paper entitled, "A tubular cell-enriched subpopulation of primary renal cells improves survival and augments kidney function in a rodent model of chronic kidney disease," is available online at the American Journal of Physiology Renal Physiology website - ajprenal.physiology/cgi/content/abstract/ajprenal.00221.2010v1 - and will appear in the November 2010 print issue.

SOURCE Tengion, Inc.