BioTime and Hepregen Merge to Form Ascendance Biotechnology

BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT and TASE: BTX) and Hepregen Corporation have announced the formation of Ascendance Biotechnology, a company that combines Hepregen’s application-directed, cellular micro-patterning drug and chemical screening technologies with BioTime’s ESI BIO research products and proprietary stem cell technologies.
 
According to the press release:

This asset combination will allow Ascendance to offer a broad portfolio of current and new stem-cell-derived assays and other products and services to Hepregen’s major pharmaceutical and chemical company customers.
Ascendance will continue to market Hepregen’s well-known HepatoPac^® and HepatoMune^® micro-patterned liver products, and plans to develop new and unique cell-based and micro-patterned products using BioTime’s stem cell technologies and broad intellectual property and product portfolio, including BioTime’s PureStem^® embryonic progenitors and ESI embryonic stem cells. Ascendance expects that its first stem cell-based product will be targeted to important testing and assay applications in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Ascendance also expects to develop additional stem-cell-derived products that will be useful for toxicity testing in the cosmetic, environmental, and food industries.
Ascendance will be led by Hepregen’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Vincent R. Zurawski, Jr., a pioneer in the biotechnology industry, who was a co-founder of Centocor, Inc. Centocor was one of the first companies to commercialize monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic and therapeutic use, and was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 1999 for more than $5 billion. Dr. Zurawski stated, “Ascendance will combine Hepregen’s proprietary technology and BioTime’s proprietary cell lines and technology to provide its clients in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries with an enhanced portfolio of next-generation, drug-development and safety-testing products and services comprised of both liver cells and additional cell types. Also, the combination of Hepregen and BioTime technologies may provide Ascendance with a potential path to the development of new drug products in collaboration with biopharma companies.”

 
Click here to read the full press release.