Stem Cells, Inc. has entered into a license agreement with Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. a Canadian biotechnology company engaged in treating certain central nervous system (CNS) disorders by stimulating endogenous neural stem cells.

Under the terms of agreement, Stem Cell Therapeutics (SCT) will pay Stem Cells up front and license maintenance fees, as well as milestone and royalty payments. The agreement also provides Stem Cells with access to SCT's intellectual property portfolio for use in drug discovery, screening and testing, and therapeutic use of cellular compositions. Stem Cells will pay SCT a commercially reasonable royalty to be negotiated in good faith on products developed under the license.

"We are delighted to have Stem Cell Therapeutics as our newest licensee in the neural stem cell field," said Martin McGlynn, president and CEO of Stem Cells. "We regard them as a pioneer in the use of various molecules to induce a patient's own stem cells to proliferate in the brain, and wish them great success with their programs, some of which are already clinical stage. Our own primary approach to treating disorders of the CNS is through the direct transplantation into the brain of natural human neural stem cells; ReNeuron, a UK biotech company that is another of our licensees in the neural stem cell field, has a similar approach to ours, but in their case they use conditionally immortalized cells. Patients can only benefit from collaborations of this sort in the private sector, as they provide multiple shots on goal, where the goal is to bring stem cell based treatments to the clinic to treat a whole range of intractable conditions of the CNS."

"This is a mutually advantageous deal that we believe advances the adult neural stem cell field as a whole. The rights we have licensed from Stem Cells further solidify and strengthen our intellectual property position, and the agreement allows Stem Cells to use our intellectual property through approaches we are not currently pursuing in our own programs," said Joseph Tucker, PhD, president and CEO of Stem Cell Therapeutics.

"Stem Cell Therapeutics is focused on a drug based approach to treating disease, while Stem Cells is developing cell based therapeutic approaches using adult stem cells. I believe that this agreement should help both companies achieve their ultimate goals of bringing effective stem cell therapies to the patients who need them."