Pluristem Therapeutics Ltd. (Nasdaq:PSTI; DAX: PJT: PLTR) today announced that it has renewed its five-year collaborative research agreement with the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapy (BCRT) at Charite - University Medicine Berlin. The original agreement to developed therapies based on Pluristem's patented PLacental eXpanded (PLX) cells was signed in 2007, and the extension is through 2017.
During the period of the first agreement, Pluristem and BCRT collaborated on placental stem cell therapies for multiple sclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, as well as Pluristem's Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) clinical program, which is now undergoing Phase II clinical trials.
Pluristem says that its PAD program targets a $16.5 billion global market, and that the collaboration with BCRT has made significant progress with ischemic heart disease and diastolic heart failure, both of which have completed pre-clinical trials. These cardiovascular indications represent an estimated global market of $24 billion.
The new five-year collaboration will cover Pluristem's Phase I/II clinical trial in Germany on the regeneration of injured gluteal muscle, and on immunological research and the development of new product candidates.
Pluristem chairman and CEO Zami Aberman, "As a result of our cooperation to date, we have enhanced and expanded our product pipeline. Our PLX cells may hold the key to a number of regenerative therapies and working with one of the leading institutions in the world in the field of regenerative medicine is extremely important to us. We look forward to further progress on indications in which we already have pre-clinical initiatives as well as discoveries in new indications."
BCRT chairman Prof. Hans Dieter Volk said, "We believe Pluristem's cells can potentially result in beneficial therapies for a number diseases and together we can achieve significant breakthroughs."
Pluristem's share price rose 5% in premarket trading on Nasdaq today to $420, giving a market cap of $185 million, and is up 7.2% by mid-afternoon on the TASE to NIS 17.04.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 21, 2012
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