Cellartis and NovaThera collaborate to develop stem cell applications
Collaboration Strengthens Ground-breaking UK Stem Cell Project

Gothenburg, Sweden and Cambridge, UK
Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Cellartis AB and NovaThera announce today further progress in developing platform technologies for regenerative medicine by forming a research partnership, utilizing the proprietary stem cell technology from Cellartis AB.

NovaThera heads a large UK Department of Trade (DTI) programme to realise an ambitious plan to help overcome the challenges faced in the production of clinical grade stem cells in large quantities for medical trials. The scientific partners in the program include the centres of academic excellence in Imperial College London, Cambridge University, Manchester University and the Roslin Institute in Scotland.

"If stem cell-based therapies are to be a readily affordable treatment, we must abandon the complex, time-consuming and expensive tailor made route. We need to scale up cell production and provide large amounts of clinical grade material for medical treatments”, said Gareth Roberts CEO of Novathera, who are focussed on turning stem cell science into medical applications for the treatment of chronic lung and heart disease.

Cellartis will now contribute to the programme through the provision of its proprietary embryonic stem cell lines. “We are delighted to access the wealth of know-how and expertise in the derivation and expansion of embryonic stem cell lines provided by Cellartis” said Dr Robert Daniels, CCO of NovaThera.

"This very important collaboration is in line with our strategic goal of scaling up our human embryonic stem cell technology while leveraging the presence of our cells at top universities in the UK ” said Mats Lundwall, CEO of Cellartis.

Under the terms of the agreement, NovaThera and Cellartis will jointly pursue commercial applications of the technologies arising from the research.

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Cellartis AB is one of the few companies in the world that is engaged in research, development and manufacture of human embryonic stem (hES) cells and specialised functional cells derived from these cell lines. The company is the world’s largest single source of defined hES cell lines, including cell lines derived under completely xeno-free conditions. Today the company has more than 30 stem cell lines available for research and has the capabilities, in line with appropriate legislative and ethical compliance requirements, to develop cells and applications for the discovery of new pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicines and toxicology. Two of the cell lines are listed in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry (www.nih.gov), and 20 of the cell lines are listed in the UK Stem Cell Bank (http://www.ukstemcellbank.co.uk/). The company was founded in 2001 and has the headquarters in state-of-the-art premises in the Biotech Centre, close to Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. For more information, please visit www.cellartis.com.

NovaThera Ltd specializes in pioneering applications of biomaterials and stem cell biology to provide innovative therapeutic solutions in regenerative medicine. NovaThera was originally spun-out from Imperial College London and now has close ties with six of the UK’s leading stem cell and biomaterial research groups. In addition, NovaThera has developed strategic corporate partnerships or licenses with corporations across Europe, the US and Asia. NovaThera has a strong pipeline of products, including a range of wound care products in late stage clinical trials, technology platforms for the scale up of stem cell production, and cell based respiratory products in late stage preclinical studies with both therapeutic and toxicity testing applications.