Full Press Release Details
Biotherapeutics, Inc. to Present Phase I Clinical Data at the 17th
Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2014--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT:
BTX) and its subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. today announced
that Jane S. Lebkowski, PhD, President, Research & Development of
Asterias, will present at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American
Society of Gene & Cell Therapy taking place May 20-24, 2014 in
Dr. Lebkowski's presentation will take place in the session titled The
Next Generation in Stem Cell Therapies on Thursday May 22, 2014 at
10:15 AM EDT at the Marriot Wardman Park, Washington, DC. Dr.
Lebkowski's presentation is titled Phase I Clinical Trial of
Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Oligodendrocyte Progenitors in
Patients with Neurologically Complete Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury:
Results and Next Steps. In her presentation, Dr. Lebkowski will
disclose for the first time certain Phase I clinical trial results of OPC1.
The presentation will be made available on BioTime's and Asterias'
websites at www.biotimeinc.com and www.biotimeinc.com/asterias-biotherapeutics/.
Asterias is a biotechnology company focused on the emerging field of
regenerative medicine. Our core technologies center on stem cells
capable of becoming all of the cell types in the human body, a property
called pluripotency. We plan to develop therapies based on pluripotent
stem cells to treat diseases or injuries in a variety of medical fields,
with an initial focus on the therapeutic applications of oligodendrocyte
progenitor cells (OPC1) and antigen-presenting dendritic cells (VAC1
and VAC2) for the fields of neurology and oncology respectively. OPC1
was tested for treatment of spinal cord injury in the world's first
Phase 1 clinical trial using human embryonic stem cell-derived cells. We
plan to reinitiate clinical testing of OPC1 in spinal cord injury
this year, and are also evaluating its function in nonclinical models of
multiple sclerosis and stroke. VAC1 and VAC2 are dendritic
cell-based vaccines designed to immunize cancer patients against the
telomerase, a protein abnormally expressed in over 95% of human cancer
types. VAC2 differs from VAC1 in that the dendritic cells
presenting telomerase to the immune system are produced from human
embryonic stem cells instead of being derived from human blood.
In October of 2013, Asterias acquired the cell therapy assets of Geron
Corporation. These assets included INDs for the clinical stage OPC1
and VAC1 programs, banks of cGMP-manufactured OPC1 drug
product, cGMP master and working cell banks of human embryonic stem
cells, over 400 patents and patent applications filed worldwide,
research cell banks, customized reagents and equipment, and various
assets relating to preclinical programs in cardiology, orthopedics, and
Asterias is a member of the BioTime family of companies.
BioTime is a biotechnology company engaged in research and product
development in the field of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine
refers to therapies based on stem cell technology that are designed to
rebuild cell and tissue function lost due to degenerative disease or
injury. BioTime's focus is on pluripotent stem cell technology based on
human embryonic stem ("hES") cells and induced pluripotent stem ("iPS")
cells. hES and iPS cells provide a means of manufacturing every cell
type in the human body and therefore show considerable promise for the
development of a number of new therapeutic products. BioTime's
therapeutic and research products include a wide array of proprietary PureStem
progenitors, HyStem hydrogels, culture media,
and differentiation kits. BioTime is developing Renevia (a HyStem
product) as a biocompatible, implantable hyaluronan and collagen-based
matrix for cell delivery in human clinical applications. In addition,
BioTime has developed Hextend , a blood plasma
volume expander for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment and other
applications. Hextend is manufactured and
distributed in the U.S. by Hospira, Inc. and in South Korea by CJ
HealthCare Corporation under exclusive licensing agreements.
BioTime is also developing stem cell and other products for research,
therapeutic, and diagnostic use through its subsidiaries:
Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a subsidiary focused on developing
cell therapies. Included in its portfolio are two clinical stage cell
therapy product candidates for use in neurology and oncology. OPC1
is a formulation of human embryonic stem (hES) cell-derived
oligodendrocyte progenitors for the treatment of spinal cord injury
and other neurodegenerative disease. VAC2 is a formulation of
hES cell-derived dendritic cells intended to function as a vaccine to
train a patient's immune system to destroy telomerase positive cancer
cells. Telomerase is a protein abnormally expressed in over 95% of all
OncoCyte Corporation is developing products and technologies to
diagnose and treat cancer.
Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd. ("Cell Cure Neurosciences") is an
Israel-based biotechnology company focused on developing stem
cell-based therapies for retinal and neurological disorders, including
the development of retinal pigment epithelial cells for the treatment
of macular degeneration, and treatments for multiple sclerosis.
LifeMap Sciences, Inc. ("LifeMap Sciences") markets, sells and
distributes GeneCards , the leading human gene
database, as part of an integrated database suite that also includes
the LifeMap Discovery database of embryonic
development, stem cell research and regenerative medicine, and MalaCards,
the human disease database.
LifeMap Solutions, Inc. is a subsidiary of LifeMap Sciences focused on
developing mobile health products.
ES Cell International Pte Ltd., a Singapore private limited company,
developed clinical and research grade hES cell lines and plans to
market those cell lines and other BioTime research products in
over-seas markets as part of BioTime's ESI BIO Division.
BioTime Asia, Limited, a Hong Kong company, may offer and sell
products for research use for BioTime's ESI BIO Division.
OrthoCyte Corporation is developing therapies to treat orthopedic
disorders, diseases and injuries.
ReCyte Therapeutics, Inc. is developing therapies to treat a variety
of cardiovascular and related ischemic disorders, as well as products
for research using cell reprogramming technology.
Additional information about BioTime can be found on the web at www.biotimeinc.com.