Cells for Cells (C4C), a pioneer in regenerative medicine biotech based in Chile, secured US$ 5.2 million from its historical investors to open a US-based holding company and a spin-off. This capital is tied to the company’s current focus on building the foundations for clinical and commercial success in the northern hemisphere, for which the firm is in the process of legally incorporating a two subsidiaries in the US that will offer an attractive investment vehicle to specialized biotechnology funds and Latin American investors seeking to invest in US innovation “made in LatAm.”
The holding and spin-off would be Cells for Cells’ first international subsidiaries, which are expected to attract local angel investors and venture capital firms. The holding company will have a pivotal role in the company’s future, by allowing for the control of multiple companies that would focus on advancing mature technology platforms to the market. The first spin-off will seek to advance Cells for Cells’ exosome technology platform to the market by leveraging the company’s pole position in this industry following the milestone of treating the world’s first patient suffering from an osteoarticular disease using clinical-grade exosome therapeutics.
The new funds will aid in the submission and execution of upcoming clinical trials using exosome therapeutics for the treatment of different indications, for which Cells for Cells have patented products. For instance, Maximiliano Kunze, Associate Director of Business Development & Corporate Strategy at Cells for Cells, said the money will help advance the company’s clinical program for osteoarthritis, a disease that affects 32.5 million adults in the United States.
Part of the company’s strategic plan is to move some of its operations, particularly those related to the business, clinical, and regulatory strategy areas, to the US to attain the ambitious goal of positioning itself in the US market. In this line, one of the fundamental steps was to sign an agreement with the University of Miami to start manufacturing stem cell therapies in the US. The production of the exosomes’ parental cells under cGMP standards in the US is one of the requests of the FDA to obtain IND authorization to start clinical studies in that country.
“We have compiled a series of clinical and preclinical data certifying the quality and safety of the exosomes’ parental cells. These results are based on the more than 750 patients we have treated in Chile and Colombia and the post-operative follow-up studies that we have carried”, mentions Maroun Khoury, Chief Scientific Officer of the company. In addition to the exosomes and the stem cells from which they derive, the company has a portfolio of more than a dozen other regenerative medicine technologies in different validation stages, some of which may in the future follow a spin-off route.
