Cellular Dynamics, the stem cell company founded by Dr. James Thomson, is filing for an IPO. Hat tip to David Jensen. The company, which will go under the stock symbol ICEL, is focused on iPS cell-produced products. They describe their portfolio as follows: Cellular Dynamics is developing and deploying a number of cell types derived from […]
Cellular Dynamics IPO: big money, iPS cell IP rights, trade secrets Read More »
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has confirmed that one of the patient in a clinical trial that it is running for treatment of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness worldwide, has shown a striking improvement in vision. The patient reportedly had 20/400 vision prior to treatment and now has 20/40 vision after treatment. ACT uses an
Striking improvement in vision in one ACT trial participant Read More »
It’s difficult to make it as a biotech company, I would say stem cell biotechs in general may have an even rougher time, and one such company, Intellicell (Intellicell Biosciences, Inc), is showing a number of signs of distress in my opinion. An online financial tool predicts the probability of companies going bankrupt within the next
Stem cell company Intellicell facing new financial wrinkles Read More »
One of the more exciting stem cell biotechs out there today is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). At this time ACT has the only two ES cell-based FDA-approved clinical trials ongoing and so far they have looked quite promising in terms of preliminary safety data. However, ACT has much more in the pipeline including potentially iPS
Interview with Gary Rabin of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) Read More »
What does it take to be a stem cell biotech CEO? I really appreciate how insightful the students are with whom I interact each year including undergrads, grads, and medical students. One asked me the other day “What are the backgrounds of the CEOs of stem cell companies?” I know some of the CEOs and
What is the ideal background for a stem cell company CEO? Take our poll Read More »
For the second year in a row (see awards 2011), Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; stock symbol ACTC) is my stem cell biotech of the year. Their trials for different forms of macular degeneration (here and here and here) are progressing well and as a stem cell scientist I really appreciate the fact they are publishing their
Stem cell biotech of the year 2012: Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC) Read More »
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; stock symbol ACTC) announced that it has secured $35 million in funding from investment company, Lincoln Park Capital. The press release quotes CEO Gary Rabin: “We are most pleased about this financing agreement, as it has a number of notable benefits for the company,” commented Gary Rabin, chairman and CEO of
Stem Cell Biotech Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) gets $35 million Read More »
Last year one of the biggest events in the stem cell field was biotech Geron punting its embryonic stem cell (ESC) program. Much consternation followed. Some folks opposed to ESCs happily pronounced ESC research dead. Some folks in favor of ESC thought the world was ending a year early. Others tried to look on the
The stem cell gestalt of Geron Goodbye and the future of ACT Read More »
It wasn’t so long ago that I did a post explaining why after following the company for years, I finally bought a small amount of stock in the stem cell biotech, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; symbol ACTC). In part it was motivated by my enthusiasm to see them publishing a paper, a very preliminary paper,
Why Lanza and I sold ACT stock Read More »
About two months about Geron shocked and disappointed the stem cell community by dropping its stem cell program. The move was reportedly made for financial, not scientific reasons. Biotech companies have to be financially sound in order to help stem cell researchers turn science into cures and Geron’s leadership had to do what it thought
What does Geron’s departure mean for ACT? Some perspectives Read More »