Plasticell founder named “Best CEO in the Stem Cell industry” by European CEO magazine
7 February 2017, Stevenage UK: Plasticell, a developer of stem cell technologies and cell-based therapies, has announced that the Company’s founder, Dr. Yen Choo, has been named “Best CEO in the Stem Cell Industry” by European CEO magazine. This accolade in part recognises Plasticell’s success in organic growth as well as its business model for the development of stem cell therapies and regenerative medicines.
Plasticell, best known for its award-winning CombiCult stem cell platform technology, has partnered this in the stem cell space with leading pharma and biotech companies, alongside in-house development of drug and cell-based therapies. The company’s new website, launched in January 2017, highlights the therapeutic pipeline which is chiefly focused on the expansion of hematopoietic stem cells and the manufacture of various high value blood cell types.
In addition, Plasticell has leveraged an open innovation partnership with GSK and funding from its corporate venture arm, to spin out a pioneering company, Progenitor Therapeutics, focused on the discovery of small molecule regenerative drugs for osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy.
Dr. Choo, currently Executive Chairman of Plasticell and CEO of Progenitor Therapeutics, commented: “The group’s therapeutic activities – now split between Plasticell’s cell therapy development and Progenitor’s regenerative drug discovery – has been built up historically with a minimal amount of angel and institutional equity investment (approx. £10m), re-cycling of income from CombiCult partnerships and more than 15 non-dilutive UK government grants, many of which have successfully delivered multi-million pound projects. In this way, we have managed to diversify and progress our therapeutic pipeline while delivering exceptional shareholder value.”
In addition to its own therapeutics development projects, Plasticell engages in strategic, bespoke cell and gene therapy collaborations to advance partners’ products, drawing on its extensive experience in stem cell biology and differentiation, and in producing rare human cell types for drug discovery applications. Historically, the company has formed alliances to progress its therapeutic projects, facilitate drug discovery and improve product manufacturing in cell therapy, gene therapy and cancer immunotherapy. Partners range from big pharma companies such as GSK, JCR Pharmaceuticals, Pierre Fabre Laboratories and UCB Pharma; technology providers such as Merck Millipore, Sigma Aldrich; Hamilton Company, Molecular Devices and Sphere Fluidics; public research institutions such as NHS Blood and Transplant, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC); and leading academic centres including University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College and UCL.
About Plasticell
Plasticell is a biotechnology company leading the use of high throughput technologies to develop stem cell therapies. The Company’s therapeutic focus is in hematopoietic stem cell therapy, anaemia and thrombocytopenia, cancer immunotherapy and diabetes/obesity. Plasticell’s Combinatorial Cell Culture™ (CombiCult®) platform technology, allows it to test very large numbers of stem cell culture variables in combinations to discover optimal laboratory protocols for the manipulation of stem cells and cell cultures and has received a number of industry awards including the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and Innovation 2016 and the R&D 100 Award, an annual prize that recognizes the most significant technology products developed each year. For more information visit www.plasticell.co.uk
About Progenitor Therapeutics
Progenitor Therapeutics is primarily focused on developing drug treatments to encourage the regeneration of specific human body tissues in response to injury, disease and ageing. The company’s goal is to help the body heal itself by addressing the underlying cause of degenerative illness, rather than merely treating the symptoms of disease. Progenitor Therapeutics collaborates with Plasticell and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and is focused on osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy.
