MultiCell Technologies and XenoTech LLC Jointly Announce Shrink Wrap Vial Sales Launch for Immortalized Hepatocytes
Wednesday June 15, 9:15 am ET
New Procedure Expected to Speed Adoption Through Reduced Sales Cycle
LINCOLN, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2005-- MultiCell Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: MCET - News), a leading supplier of immortalized non-tumorgenic human hepatocytes as pharmaceutical candidate optimization tools, announced sales of the Fa2N-4 hepatocytes in shrink-wrapped vials. By opening the wrap, a user indicates acceptance of the terms of a one-time license. This allows companies to buy plated cells with no need for any future no-grow agreements.
The official launch was announced jointly with XenoTech LLC, MultiCell's marketing and manufacturing licensee, at PharmSciFair in Nice, France June 14th, 2005.
The cells, also available in 6 to 96-well plates, are currently being sold to many of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies under an evaluation license. Dr. Andrew Parkinson, President of XenoTech, explained. "An evaluation license was a precursor to a propagation license; we found that many customers don't want to deal with the complexities of the propagation license and that they lack the staff and space required for propagation of their own cells. In fact, our own facilities may be inadequate for the projected future demand."
Jerry Newmin, CEO of MultiCell, stated, "This approach removes the single largest barrier for use of our cell lines by pharmaceutical companies, the execution of limited license agreements. The legal process of licensing cell lines for propagation took our cells out of the hands of the scientists and put them in the hands of lawyers. This new sales approach will allow scientists to purchase cells without the complexities of licenses. Accordingly, we believe that this may speed widespread use of our cells to help lower drug development costs and help prevent costly drug recalls."
Janice Di Pietro, MultiCell's CFO, commented, "The companies believe the new shrink-wrap sales approach will shorten the sales cycle and help XenoTech accelerate payments to MultiCell."
About MultiCell
MultiCell sells two lines of immortalized human hepatocytes to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. These progenitor cells and immortalized liver cells have been validated for use in drug discovery by XenoTech, Pfizer and Bristol Meyers Squibb.
MultiCell's immortalized human hepatocyte lines closely resemble primary human liver cells in morphology and function. Hepatocytes express drug-metabolizing enzymes that biotransform drugs or substances ingested into the body, so they help predict the effect of a compound on human livers. MultiCell's cell lines are sensitive to compounds that increase the expression of CYP3A4, an essential feature of in vitro model systems when studying drug-drug interactions. They eliminate the problem of limited supply and organ donor variability that restrict the use of harvested human liver cells for enzyme induction, cellular toxicity assays and other in vitro screening. The bio-reactivity of MultiCell's cell lines may save years of time and millions of dollars during pre-clinical drug discovery, development and testing stages. Hepatocytes metabolize or de-toxify drugs or substances ingested into the body. Drug failures or FDA rejections due to hepatotoxicity and/or drug-drug interactions now cost the pharmaceutical industry an estimated $2 billion each year. It costs about $900 million to develop and test a new medicine.
MultiCell also has intellectual property in the area of drug discovery and stem cells and the patented Sybiol(TM) synthetic bio-liver therapeutic liver assist device. MultiCell holds two patents on novel strategies for isolation of adult human liver cells, and cell clusters or doublets, invented by Dr. Ronald A. Faris, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of MutliCell and Director of Research with Rhode Island Hospital. Obtaining stem cells from adult tissues avoids the ethical issues and the contamination issues associated with embryonic or fetal stem cells. Liver stem cells may play a key role in transplantation for tissue regeneration and therapeutic use including the clinical management of metabolic liver disorders and heart disease as well as potential diagnostic applications. The use of liver stem cells to treat diseases, such as Hepatitis C, may greatly enhance quality of life and avoid costly whole organ liver transplantation. MultiCell believes its patented stem cell techniques are unique within the cell therapy market.
MultiCell recently announced sales of its two porcine cell lines without need for a license agreement. To purchase these cells lines and proprietary porcine dry powder culture media, call (401) 333-0610.
MultiCell's headquarters and research laboratories are at 701 George Washington Highway, Lincoln, Rhode Island 02865. For more information about MultiCell and its Xenogenics subsidiary see www.multicelltech.com.
About XenoTech, LLC
XenoTech was founded by Andrew Parkinson, Ph.D. to study drug metabolism and safety. XenoTech provides products and contract research services to pharmaceutical companies throughout the world to optimize discovery, development and approval of new drugs. XenoTech's products and services, including MultiCell's hepatocytes, are marketed in Japan by Nosan Corporation and by tebu-bio in Europe.
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements in this press release about MultiCell's expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "believe," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," and "would." For example, statements concerning expected increases in use of MultiCell's functional immortalized hepatocytes and the use of liver assist devices are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. Some of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimates or projections in the forward-looking statement include, but are not limited to, the risk that the market for our products will not grow as expected, and the risk that our products will not lower drug development costs. For additional information about risks and uncertainties we face, see documents we file with the SEC, including our Report on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2004 and all our quarterly and other periodic filings made with the SEC. MultiCell assumes no obligation and expressly disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news release or to reflect the occurrence of subsequent events.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
MultiCell Technologies, Inc.
Jerry Newmin, 401-333-0610
or
CEOcast, Inc. for MultiCell
Ed Lewis, 212-732-4300
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: MultiCell Technologies, Inc.
biz.yahoo.com |
