Date: 2013-03-27
Type of information: Establishment of a new subsidiary in the EU
Compound: Upcyte® cells
Company: Medicyte (Germany) Life Technologies (USA)
Therapeutic area:
Type agreement: licensing
development
commercialisation
Action mechanism: Currently, the primary cell types commercially available are restricted, and their poor proliferative capacity limits their use in cell-based assays. The use of immortalized cell lines in cell-based models, on the other hand, is compromised by their transformed and not healthy phenotype. Using Medicyte´s innovative upcyte® technology, primary cells are driven into proliferation, thus allowing controlled induction of cell proliferation without immortalization, uncontrolled cell growth or changing typical characteristics. Therefore, upcyte® cells and corresponding cell-based assays can become available in sufficient quantities with a consistent quality that can be used for research, screening and drug development. That allows true standardization of cell based assays.
Disease:
Details: Medicyte has signed a licensing agreement for the rights to use Lentiviral vector technology from Life Technologies to develop and market next generation, cell-based upcyte® cell products to the biopharma and academic research markets. Various data, already presented at academic meetings, indicates that Medicyte’s upcyte® hepatocytes combine the benefits of quantity (generation of up to 2000 vials per donor) with the quality of primary hepatocytes. The new generation of upcyte® hepatocytes show more comparable results to primary cells in in-vitro assays (such as CYP 3A4-Induction, genotoxicity or hepato- and cytotoxicity).
Financial terms: Financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.
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