ST Blood & Tissue Center, Saneron sign clinical supply and research collaboration agreement

Jun 12 2012

Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc. of Tampa, Florida, and South Texas Blood & Tissue Center of San Antonio, have signed a clinical supply and research collaboration agreement. Under the agreement, the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center will research approaches for recovering and processing proprietary mononuclear cells from umbilical cord blood. From that inventory, Saneron will use the cells for future clinical trials to study possible therapies for restoring brain tissue in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as "Lou Gehrig's disease," and the effects of stroke.

STBTC will provide the cord blood cells through its GenCure affiliate, which focuses on providing cell and tissue services for regenerative medicine therapy and research.

"The opportunity to collaborate with Saneron to support research into potential new life-enhancing therapies is particularly gratifying because there are currently so few restorative treatments available for patients with these devastating neurological disorders," said Mary Beth Fisk, MT, CTBS, CQA, president and COO of STBTC. "Partnering to support this type of regenerative medicine research - research that will have a huge impact on health care in the future - is the reason we established GenCure."

According to Nicole Kuzmin-Nichols, MBA, Saneron president and COO, having access to a readily available supply of clinical grade U-CORD-CELL™, Saneron's proprietary processed mononuclear cell fraction of cord blood, is crucial.

"We, too, are very pleased to partner with the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center to provide clinical grade umbilical cord blood for potential future neurological applications," said Kuzmin-Nichols. As we move towards clinical trials, having access to a readily available supply of clinical grade U-CORD-CELL™, Saneron's proprietary processed mononuclear cell fraction of cord blood, is crucial. We feel that STBTC has the both the expertise and volume of samples needed to be a key partner."

Source: Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc.