Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC) will exclusively license to the joint venture, which will be majority owned by CHA, all of its hemangioblast technology. CHA will contribute working capital for the venture as well as paying ACTC a license fee of $500,000.
The new company will be located in Worcester, Massachusetts and will include Young Chung and the hemangioblast team headed by Shi-Jiang Lu from ACTC. Robert Lanza will continue to lead ACTC’s retinal program, but will serve in a consulting capacity as Allied’s chief scientific advisor.
Besides the exclusive license and transferring the hemangioblast team, ACTC will collaborate with the joint venture in securing grants to further the R&D of the technology. It is anticipated that this program may some day help address the critical care shortage of blood for emergency situations including military needs. The technology has also been shown to repair vascular damage in animals after heart attacks, limb ischemia, and diabetes.
William Caldwell IV, chairman and CEO of ACTC, said: We believe ACTC’s hemangioblast cells have great potential in addressing many unmet medical needs through the use of stem cell technology. CHA Biotech will provide much needed technical and financial resources to our efforts to commercialize an O negative stem cell derived blood product. Dr Lanza and his team will work with the new company to move this program into the clinic.
Hyung-Min Chung, CEO of CHA Biotech, said: We believe ACTC’s hemangioblast cells have great potential in addressing many unmet medical needs through the use of stem cell technology. We look forward to working closely with them to commercialize this promising technology. Similarly, we look forward to working with ACTC on other stem cell technologies and increase the areas of cooperation between the two companies.