20th Mar 2007 07:01
Stem Cell Sciences plc20 March 2007 20 March 2007 Stem Cell Sciences plc ("Stem Cell Sciences", "SCS" or "the Company") Opening of Share Offer on Australian Stock Exchange Further to the announcement on 14 March 2007, Stem Cell Sciences plc, the global biotechnology company focused on the commercialisation of stem cells and stem cell technologies in research and cell-based therapies, confirms that its share offer has today opened in Australia. It is anticipated that the Company's shares will list on the Australian Stock Exchange in April 2007. A further announcement will be made when the offer closes. - Ends - For further information, please contact: Stem Cell Sciences plc 0131 662 9829Peter Mountford, President and CEOHugh Ilyine, Chief Operations OfficerSue Furber, Director of Finance Weber Shandwick Financial 020 7067 0700Louise Robson or James White Notes to EditorsStem Cell Sciences plc (AIM: STEM) is a global biotechnology company,established in Melbourne, Australia in 1994, providing products in theburgeoning stem cell research and drug discovery markets, in addition to thetargeted development of cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative disease andinjury. The Company has established a leading intellectual property (IP) and technologyportfolio that enables the commercial application of stem cells in drugdiscovery, providing the Company with early-stage revenue streams and technologydevelopment for at scale cell production of SCS cell-based therapeutics. SCSprincipal focus is in neurological disease. Revenues in the neurotech market,including pharmaceuticals, devices and diagnostics, grew 10% in 2005 to US$110billion (Neurotech Insights, Volume 2/3 April 30 2006). SCS operates as a group of independent operations with offices and laboratoriesin Edinburgh and Cambridge, UK, Kobe, Japan, Melbourne, Australia and SanFrancisco, USA (office only). Each SCS facility is affiliated with an academiccentre of excellence. These include the Institute of Stem Cell Research (ISCR),Edinburgh, UK, RIKEN Centre for Development Biology, Kobe, Japan and theAustralian Stem Cell Centre, Melbourne, Australia. SCS has four business units, each dedicated to different aspects of the stemcell business opportunity. SC Proven(R) provides cell culture media (liquid formulations) and reagents thatenable the growth and differentiation of stem cells. The first SC Proven(R)product, "ESGRO CompleteTM", a cell culture medium capable of consistent growthof mouse embryonic stem cells without serum or feeder cell support was launchedin February 2006. This was followed by "HEScGROTM", the first animal-componentfree cell culture medium to enable improved growth of human embryonic stemcells, in January 2007. These products are manufactured and distributed byChemicon International, now part of Millipore Corporation. SC Licensing licenses SCS proprietary technologies, such as Internal RibosomeEntry Site (IRES), Stem Cell Selection, hMADS (human adipose derived stem cells)and Neural Stem Cell Technology for application in laboratory-based research anddiscovery. SCS has licensed technology to major pharmaceutical and biotechnologycompanies including Merck & Co, Pfizer, Sanofi Aventis, GSK, Deltagen Inc andLexicon Genetics Inc and others. SC Services provides specialised stem cell production for basic research anddrug discovery, including high-throughput applications through an automated cellproduction facility in Cambridge UK. The services offered include the creationof specific cell lines for a customer, the modification of existing cell linesso that they can be grown in serum free SC Proven(R) media, and the supply ofcells for drug screening in multi-well plate format. SC Therapies' goal is to develop safe and effective cell-based therapies forcurrently incurable diseases. Initial research is being directed to developingand characterising cell lines of potential therapeutic value in the treatment ofspinal injury, Parkinson's disease, eye disease, epilepsy and Duchenne MuscularDystrophy (DMD). Programmes to test SCS' proprietary stem cells in animal modelsof spinal cord injury have been initiated in a number of disease models andpreclinical studies for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy areanticipated in 2007-8. For further information on the company please visit: www.stemcellsciences.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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