Wins grant for retinal cell therapy development

RNS Number : 3700L

ReNeuron Group plc

19 April 2018

 

 

19 April 2018

AIM: RENE

ReNeuron Group plc

("ReNeuron" or "the Company")

              Wins grant for retinal cell therapy development

ReNeuron Group plc (AIM: RENE), a UK-based global leader in the development of cell-based therapeutics, is pleased to announce that it is the lead industry participant in a new £1.5 million grant award from the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK, to advance development of its hRPC stem cell therapy candidate for blindness-causing degenerative diseases of the retina.

The grant has been awarded under Innovate UK's Medicines and Manufacturing Round 1: Challenge Fund and will co-fund a collaborative programme of work to be undertaken by ReNeuron and its partners, the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult, Roslin Cell Therapies and University College London.  The project will allow the generation of further cell banks of ReNeuron's hRPC cell therapy candidate as well as the development of product release assays for late-stage clinical development and subsequent commercialisation of the therapy.

ReNeuron's hRPC cell therapy candidate is currently being tested in a Phase I/II clinical trial in the US, in patients suffering from the blindness-causing disease, retinitis pigmentosa. This new grant follows an earlier grant awarded by Innovate UK which supported the late pre-clinical development of the hRPC cell therapy candidate.

Commenting on the results, Sharon Grimster, General Manager Wales, at ReNeuron said:

"We and our collaborators are delighted to have won this latest grant from Innovate UK to develop a suite of robust and reliable release and characterisation assays reflecting the mechanism of action of our hRPC cell therapy candidate.  This is a challenging but vital part of the broader commercial manufacturing strategy for the therapy and we are pleased to be working with leading academic and commercial manufacturing partners on this important programme of work."

ENDS

Enquiries:

ReNeuron	[phone]
Olav Hellebø , Chief Executive Officer
Michael Hunt, Chief Financial Officer
Buchanan	[phone]
Mark Court, Sophie Wills, Stephanie Watson
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited Jonathan Senior, Stewart Wallace, Ben Maddison (NOMAD and Joint Broker)	[phone]
N+1 Singer Advisory LLP Mark Taylor (Joint Broker)	[phone]

About ReNeuron

ReNeuron is a leading, clinical-stage cell therapy development company.  Based in the UK, its primary objective is the development of novel cell-based therapies targeting areas of significant unmet or poorly met medical need.  

ReNeuron has used its unique stem cell technologies to develop cell-based therapies for significant disease conditions where the cells can be readily administered "off-the-shelf" to any eligible patient without the need for additional immunosuppressive drug treatments.  The Company has therapeutic candidates in clinical development for disability as a result of stroke and for the blindness-causing disease, retinitis pigmentosa.   

ReNeuron is also advancing its proprietary exosome technology platform as a potential new nanomedicine targeting cancer and as a potential delivery system for drugs that would otherwise be unable to reach their site of action.

ReNeuron's shares are traded on the London AIM market under the symbol RENE.L.  Further information on ReNeuron and its products can be found at www.reneuron.com.

 

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