International Stem Cell Corporation, announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lifeline Cell Technology (Lifeline), has signed a distribution agreement with Tokyo-based Veritas Corporation to distribute its human cell culture products throughout Japan.

Lifeline, located in Maryland and California, specializes in the development, manufacture, and distribution of products to culture human cells for the study of human disease, including products to culture primary human cells and human stem cells. These products are being requested by customers overseas, including customers in Japan, Korea and India and this agreement is the first step in Lifeline's plan to meet these requests.

According to Lifeline's CEO, Jeffrey Janus, "Veritas Corporation is a highly respected name in the Japanese life science community, providing Lifeline with a long standing and well established distribution channel to Japanese researchers." He continued, "We are pleased to have such an experienced and capable partner in Japan who should help continue the rapid expansion of our Lifeline brand of human cells and cell culture tools."

Lifeline's scientists have over 20 years of experience developing products for the culture of human cells, and have made significant contributions to the creation and standardization of human cell systems used today for clinical applications and in academic, government and pharmaceutical research laboratories. Lifeline scientists recently discovered methods to create human corneal tissues from ISCO's proprietary human "parthenogenetic" stem cells, and are actively working to create products that may have significant use as research tools for drug testing or for treating corneal injury and disease.

"This agreement is important in advancing ISCO's goal of becoming the primary provider of high quality human stem cell culture tools to the research and therapeutic markets," said Dr Andrey Semechkin, ISCO's CEO.

International Stem Cell Corporation has developed, for the first time under controlled conditions, human "parthenogenetic" stem cell lines (hpSC) that promise to minimize the rejection of transplanted cells by a patient's immune system. ISCO's technology, called "parthenogenesis," results in the creation of pluripotent hpSC from unfertilized human eggs. This new methodology offers the potential to create the first true "Stem Cell Bank" and also addresses critical ethical issues by eliminating the need to use fertilized embryos. Lifeline Cell Technology not only provides ISCO with revenue, but also with the manufacturing experience and infrastructure needed to move ISCO's hpSC products into "cGMP" manufacturing conditions that are required by Federal regulators for manufacturing cells for future therapeutic use.

International Stem Cell Corporation is a California-based biotechnology company focused on therapeutic and research products.