BioTime, Inc has initiated shipments of stem cell research products to its worldwide distributor, Millipore Corporation, according to the terms of the co-marketing agreement between the two companies that was announced on July 9, 2009. BioTime has shipped inventory of six ACTCellerate progenitor cell lines to Millipore and plans to begin shipments of additional cell lines and ESpan cell growth media in the next several weeks. Derived from human embryonic stem cells but not fully differentiated into specific cell types, each ACTCellerate line provides a convenient, highly purified source of progenitor cells that may have applications in drug discovery, research, and the development of therapeutic products.
BioTime's research products will soon be available to be ordered by researchers through Millipore's stem cell homepage, www.millipore.com/stemcells. Millipore, which is already a leading supplier of stem cell research reagents, plans a full launch for BioTime's progenitor cell lines and growth media during the first quarter of 2010.
BioTime's progenitor cell lines and growth media are also being offered through BioTime Asia, Limited as research products to prestigious hospital-based stem cell research centres in the People's Republic of China.
"Many researchers prefer to work with well-characterized progenitor cells rather than starting from scratch with embryonic stem cells," said Michael D West, CEO of BioTime. "The ACTCellerate product line allows scientists to save time and money, and to accomplish a wider range of research goals. We look forward to working with Millipore's outstanding marketing team to make these cell lines widely available to scientists worldwide, allowing them to more quickly perform the research and development work that may lead to life-saving therapies."
"We are pleased to be entering a new stage in the development of BioTime's business as we begin to generate revenues not only from Hextend, our US FDA-approved blood plasma volume expander product, and from our CIRM grant, but also from our research products. Our goal is to continue to increase our revenues steadily while also advancing our stem cell therapeutic product development efforts in the US and Asia," Michael said.
Millipore is a Life Science leader providing cutting-edge technologies, tools, and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. As a strategic partner, we collaborate with customers to confront the world's challenging human health issues.
BioTime is a biotechnology company focused on regenerative medicine and blood plasma volume expanders.