Industry Update: Capital market and finances

Written by Dusko ILIC
Industry developments Journal articles Spotlight on cell therapy regulation

Latest business developments compiled from January 1 — February 29 2016

Latest business developments in the field of stem cell research and
regenerative medicine compiled from publicly available information and
press releases from non-academic institutions from January 1 — February 29 2016, scheduled to be published in Volume 11 Issue 4 of Regenerative Medicine.

BioTime and Asterias Biotherapeutics

BioTime (CA, US; www.biotimeinc.com) and its wholly owned subsidiary ES Cell International (ESI; CA, US; www.esibio.com) drafted a Share Transfer Agreement with Asterias Biotherapeutics (CA, US; www.asteriasbiotherapeutics.com) under which BioTime will reacquire capital stock of BioTime subsidiaries Cell Cure Neurosciences (Israel; www.cellcureneurosciences.com) and OrthoCyte (CA, US; www.orthocyte.com), the latter of which will again be a wholly owned subsidiary of BioTime. Asterias will reacquire from BioTime warrants to purchase 3.15 million shares of Asterias Series A Common Stock. It intends to distribute the warrants to shareholders. The companies have also entered into a Cross-License Agreement for pluripotent stem cell-derived cell therapies which enables both firms to leverage the patent estate covering the therapeutic uses of cell technology in their respective areas of concentration.

ReNeuron

ReNeuron Group (UK; www.reneuron.com) has been awarded a US$ 3 (GBP 2.1) million grant from Innovate UK (www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk) to further advance its emerging exosome nanomedicine platform. The grant, entitled “Stem cell-derived exosomes for regenerative medicine”, will fund key pre-clinical development work packages relating to ReNeuron’s exosome nanomedicine platform. These include the development of robust manufacturing systems utilising scalable bioreactors and purification technologies that will enable the production of ReNeuron’s exosomes at a commercial scale. The work program also includes product characterization and potency assay development as well as pre-clinical efficacy and toxicity testing of the selected exosome nanomedicine candidate.