TiGenix NV of Belgium is set to acquire Orthomimetics, a privately-held UK medical technology company, for shares valued at €16 million in order to extend its regenerative medicines franchise.
BioCeramic Therapeutics, a privately-owned company that is developing bioactive materials for orthopaedic and dental applications has received £1.2 million to support its operations ahead of the commercialisation of its lead product in 2010.
The Riverside Company, a private equity group with offices in Brussels, Belgium, has acquired Crioestaminal SA of Portugal which collects stem cells from umbilical cord blood.
Cell Medica Ltd, an early-stage cellular therapeutics company, has received £1.95 million in new funding in order to commercialise its lead product, a cell therapy technique which protects patients from infection following a bone marrow transplant.
Osiris Therapeutics Inc said that preliminary results from two Phase 3 trials of its stem cell treatment for acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) did not reach their primary endpoints.
Geron Corporation of Menlo Park, California, has submitted further animal data to the US Food and Drug Administration on its first-in-man study of a stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury and the agency has put a clinical hold on the study.
Companies developing new cell and tissue-engineered products shouldn’t expect to see much venture funding for their activities at least until the current recession bottoms out and economic growth resumes, according to a US venture capitalist.
The US National Institutes of Health is requesting comments on draft guidelines that will inform the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research. Comments are requested by 26 May 2009 to the NIH.
French researchers have started screening for compounds and RNA interference molecules that could eventually treat myotonic dystrophy, a chronic, slowly progressing disease characterised by wasting of the muscles.
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be issuing new guidelines on how scientists should conduct research using embryonic stem cells following President Barack Obama’s decision to lift restrictions on federal funding of this research.