BioWorld International Correspondent

JERUSALEM - Gamida-Cell Ltd. is the recipient of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s first investment in stem cell technology.

Gamida-Cell, of Jerusalem, disclosed earlier this month a strategic agreement with Teva, also of Jerusalem, under which Teva will invest US$3 million in one application of StemEx, Gamida-Cell's flagship product under development, involving expansion of umbilical cord blood stem cells that occur with minimal differentiation, according to preclinical studies.

In mid-February, Gamida-Cell began enrolling patients in the U.S. in a trial of StemEx to treat advanced hematologic malignancies such as leukemia and lymphoma in patients after high-dose chemotherapy, to assess safety and the rate and durability of hematopoietic reconstitution of the immune system.

Gamida-Cell CEO Ehud Marom told BioWorld International, "StemEx is a small molecule that allows large-scale, self-renewal of stem/progenitor cells ex vivo. This could prove to be the first effective means to restore the immune system of patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy for hematologic diseases, which is still lacking."

Once the Phase I clinical trial is complete, Teva will have the right to broaden the collaboration. The stem cell expansion technology was licensed from and has been jointly developed by Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Teva's vice president of strategic business planning and new ventures, Aaron Schwartz, enthused about the opportunity to enter into the promising field of stem cell therapeutics, said, "We are encouraged by the results to date and believe that the product has great promise for several disease indications that are not adequately addressed by existing therapeutics." Those include repair and regeneration of skin and cardiac, neural, liver and pancreatic stem/progenitor cells.

Gamida-Cell, founded in 1998, has raised US$20 million in two rounds from investors in Israel and elsewhere. The firm has U.S. operations in Boston.