Scimitar Equity Blog

BTX announced a $4M equity financing of subsidiary, which will be renamed ReCyte Therapeutics and will develop therapeutic products for cardiovascular and blood diseases previously conducted through Embryome Sciences.

• The new equity financing is being led by a $2.5M investment by private investors and a $1.5 M investment from BTX that valued ReCyte Therapeutics at a post money valuation of $60M on a fully diluted basis;
• ReCyte Therapeutics has also adopted a 4M share stock option plan for officers, directors, key employees and key consultants;
• Following the transaction, BTX will retain an ownership interest of approximately 95.15% of the outstanding shares of ReCyte Therapeutics;
• BTX expects to consolidate the research product business previously conducted through Embryome Sciences with the research products business conducted by BioTime’s subsidiary ES Cell International Pte Ltd.

ReCyte Therapeutics will target markets to reverse the developmental aging of human cells, then to generate embryonic vascular and blood progenitors from the ReCyte cell lines for therapeutic use in age-related vascular and blood disorders such as coronary disease and heart failure.

• In 2011, ReCyte Therapeutics intends to begin to build a near-term revenue business by offering a service to reverse the developmental aging of human cells and to generate blood and vascular progenitors for cell banking purposes;
• Neither service in the cell banking business is expected to require lengthy FDA approval;
• With the capital obtained from the current equity financing, ReCyte Therapeutics will also begin preclinical studies to support future clinical trials of this new class of human therapeutics for vascular and blood disorders;
•  These  therapeutic uses of the cells will require testing and approval by regulatory agencies such as the FDA.

ReCyte Therapeutics already has licenses for iPS technology, as well as its own proprietary ReCyte™ iPS technology.

• ReCyte Therapeutics plans to develop a manufacturing process for the large scale reprogramming of human skin cells by resetting telomere length and simultaneously resetting the cell’s stage of development to the embryonic state;
• The object of this aspect of the R&D will be to build a cost-effective manufacturing platform that will be the basis of a cell banking service planned for launch in 2011;
• ReCyte Therapeutics will also develop primitive ReCyte™ cell-derived angioblasts and blood stem cells, which are cells believed to be capable of reconstituting and repairing age-related changes in the vascular and blood systems respectively;
•  The young vascular-forming cells (angioblasts) will be tested in preclinical mouse models of accelerated aging to score their safety and efficacy in restoring blood flow in models of ischemia.