CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA — Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American and TASE: LCTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing allogeneic (“off the shelf”) cell therapies for neurological and ophthalmic conditions, announced it has entered into a research collaboration with William Demant Invest A/S (WDI). WDI is the holding company for William Demant Foundation’s investment activities and the majority shareholder of Demant A/S, a global hearing healthcare company.
The three-year collaboration will focus on advancing Lineage’s auditory neuronal cell transplant program, ReSonance™ (ANP1), for the treatment of hearing loss. Preclinical development will include cell manufacturing, proof-of-concept studies, translational and functional models, delivery methods, outcome measures, regulatory strategy, and market analysis to support a potential IND/CTA filing.
WDI will contribute up to $12 million in research costs during the term. Development activities will be jointly managed by Lineage and researchers from the Eriksholm Research Centre, part of Oticon A/S, a subsidiary of the Demant Group.
“ReSonance is our first internally-developed cell transplant program and highlights the efficiency and breadth of our technology platform. Over a short period of time and with a modest initial, incremental investment, we advanced the ANP1 product concept through successful manufacture of the desired cell type, generated new intellectual property, and advanced into initial preclinical testing. With this research contribution from WDI, which has a strong interest in hearing healthcare, we are taking the next step in the development of this exciting product candidate. This partnership will allow us to integrate the hearing loss research expertise of Eriksholm Research Centre with the manufacturing and cell transplant expertise of the Lineage team to explore the potential of a differentiated cell transplant, and position this therapy for initial clinical development”
–Brian Culley, Lineage CEO
Hearing relies on auditory nerve cells to transmit sound information to the brain. In conditions such as auditory neuropathy, these nerve cells are damaged or lost, disrupting communication between the ear and the brain and resulting in significant hearing impairment. Treatment options remain limited, but cell-based therapies that repopulate the cochlea with functional auditory neurons may offer a potential path to restore hearing and improve cochlear implant performance in some cases.
About William Demant Invest
William Demant Invest is an evergreen investor and the holding company for William Demant Foundation’s investment activities, focusing on investments in listed companies. The current market value for all companies in the portfolio is around DKK 150 billion. Founded in 2004, William Demant Invest is wholly owned by William Demant Foundation with an identical Board of Directors. The main purpose of William Demant Foundation is to secure and expand the hearing healthcare company Demant and to donate a share of its net income to charter-defined causes.
About Eriksholm Research Centre
Eriksholm Research Centre is part of Oticon A/S, a world leader in hearing healthcare and part of the Demant A/S group of companies. Eriksholm is committed to making audiological discoveries with the potential to significantly enhance end-user benefits in hearing healthcare. Eriksholm engages in close collaborations with world leading academic research institutions. By bringing experts together, Eriksholm is able to create mutually beneficial research synergies and open up new lines of inquiry in the broader research community.
About Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.
Lineage Cell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel, “off-the-shelf” cell therapies to address unmet medical needs. Lineage’s programs are based on its proprietary cell-based technology platform and associated development and manufacturing capabilities. From this platform, Lineage designs, develops, manufactures, and tests specialized human cells with anatomical and physiological functions similar or identical to cells found naturally in the human body. These cells are created by applying directed differentiation protocols to established, well-characterized, and self-renewing pluripotent cell lines. These protocols generate cells with characteristics associated with specific and desired developmental lineages. Cells derived from such lineages are transplanted into patients in an effort to replace or support cells that are absent or dysfunctional due to degenerative disease, aging, or traumatic injury, and to restore or augment the patient’s functional activity. Lineage’s neuroscience focused pipeline currently includes: (i) OpRegen® cell therapy, a retinal pigment epithelial cell therapy in Phase 2a development under a worldwide collaboration with Roche and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration; (ii) OPC1, an oligodendrocyte progenitor cell therapy in Phase 1/2a development for the treatment of spinal cord injuries; (iii) ReSonance (ANP1), an auditory neuronal progenitor cell therapy for the potential treatment of auditory neuropathy; (iv) PNC1, a photoreceptor neural cell therapy for the potential treatment of vision loss due to photoreceptor dysfunction or damage; and (v) RND1, a novel hypoimmune induced pluripotent stem cell line being developed under a gene editing partnership.
Source: Lineage Cell Therapeutics
