ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (“AgeX”; NYSE American: AGE), a biotechnology company developing therapeutics for human aging and regeneration, announced today a research collaboration with a Japanese biopharma company utilizing AgeX’s HLA-G-based immunotolerance UniverCyteTM technology platform for the engineering of hypoimmunogenic (universal) cells. The research program will evaluate the expression of UniverCyte on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and the ability of those UniverCyte-modified iPS cells to evade immune responses and to differentiate into somatic cells. AgeX will have rights to use any improvements to its UniverCyte technology developed through the research and may negotiate commercial licensing arrangements granting its collaborator rights to use UniverCyte to produce cellular products for therapeutic and commercial purposes.
“Given its near- and long-term clinical and commercial potential, we are deeply focused on deriving value and generating revenue from our UniverCyte technology platform,” said Greg Bailey, MD, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AgeX. “This exciting collaboration marks a milestone moment for us on many levels, including our first collaboration utilizing UniverCyte; our first announcement related to our newly-unveiled business development and licensing model; and our first foray into Japan. With its favourable business and regulatory climate for regenerative medicine, Japan may prove to be a very important market for us.”
This is AgeX’s first collaboration under its new technology licensing and collaboration business strategy. AgeX hopes to announce further collaborations for research and product development utilizing its technology platforms in the coming months.
“Our work to engineer our own universal pluripotent stem cell line is proceeding as planned,” said Dr. Nafees Malik, Chief Operating Officer of AgeX. “This exciting collaboration nicely complements our own in-house research. Our aim is to be a world leader in the engineering of universal cells.”
AgeX’s UniverCyte uses a proprietary, novel, modified form of HLA-G and is intended to permit donor cells to be transplanted into patients without donor-patient tissue matching and without administering immunosuppressant medication. Immunosuppressive drugs can reduce patient resistance to infectious diseases and cancers as well as cause organ and other toxicities. Reducing or eliminating the need for immunosuppressants after cell transplantation by use of hypoimmunogenic cells may make therapies universally available.
AgeX and its largest stockholder, Juvenescence, recently published a joint paper in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Regenerative Medicine highlighting the UniverCyte technology platform, “Engineering strategies for generating hypoimmunogenic cells with high clinical and commercial value,” which has been very well received by the scientific community, ranking in the top 1% of more than 14 million research papers tracked by Altmetric.
About AgeX Therapeutics
AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: AGE) is focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics for human aging. Its PureStem® and UniverCyte™ manufacturing and immunotolerance technologies are designed to work together to generate highly-defined, universal, allogeneic, off-the-shelf pluripotent stem cell-derived young cells of any type for application in a variety of diseases with a high unmet medical need. AgeX has two preclinical cell therapy programs: AGEX-VASC1 (vascular progenitor cells) for tissue ischemia and AGEX-BAT1 (brown fat cells) for Type II diabetes. AgeX’s revolutionary longevity platform induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR™) aims to unlock cellular immortality and regenerative capacity to reverse age-related changes within tissues. AGEX-iTR1547 is an iTR-based formulation in preclinical development. HyStem® is AgeX’s delivery technology to stably engraft PureStem cell therapies in the body. AgeX is developing its core product pipeline for use in the clinic to extend human healthspan and is seeking opportunities to establish licensing and collaboration agreements around its broad IP estate and proprietary technology platforms.
For more information, please visit www.agexinc.com or connect with the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not historical fact including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as “will,” “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates” should also be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. and its subsidiaries particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of AgeX’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commissions (copies of which may be obtained at www.sec.gov). Further, in the case of AgeX’s new UniverCyte™ research collaboration, there can be no assurance that: (i) any improved technology will be invented or any HLA-G modified somatic cells will be successfully derived in the research program, (ii) AgeX will be able to license UniverCyte™ technology on commercially favorable terms, or (iii) any HLA-G modified cells that may be derived for therapeutic use will be shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials or will be successfully commercialized even if clinical trials are successful. Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. AgeX specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law.
