A new international joint venture formed with a Korean biotech company has helped gin $400,000 in fresh funds for Advanced Cell Technology. The Worcester, MA-based stem cell company says it received a final payment from CHA Biotech following the creation of the new venture--which will use ACT's technology to develop human blood cells--along with new grants from NIH.
That money will be used to advance its program on retinal pigment epithelium cells, and ACT says it is on track to file an IND in the second half of this year. That's a far cry from last summer, when the closely-watched ESC outfit signaled that a cash crunch had left it teetering on the brink of collapse.
"We continue to identify creative, non-dilutive ways to raise capital in a very challenging capital markets environment," said William M. Caldwell IV, Chairman and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology. "We believe that investors are beginning to focus on the potential of our RPE program and its potential therapeutic impact on some 200 different retinal disease conditions. The immune privilege nature of the eye, coupled with a small dosage relative to other cellular therapies, plus the ease of application via a simple injection by needle makes this an ideal candidate for validating therapeutic applications for the human embryonic stem cell technology platform."
- read the ACT release
- check out the report from Mass High Tech