Sydney, April 11, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - CyGenics Ltd. (ASX: CYN) announced its plans to establish a sound base in the European market to take advantage of exciting business opportunities in those markets. As a first step, CyGenics plans to acquire a significant stake in Dutch-based PharmaCell BV.
This investment will give CyGenics:
(a) a key foothold in Europe;
(b) enhanced core strengths and technology offerings; and
(c) provides a pathway for expansion into the European market.
Through this investment CyGenics will be able to build on PharmaCell's know-how and resources for product and process design, and utilise the PharmaCell GMP manufacturing facility.
Strategically, this investment will give CyGenics access to a state of the art GMP manufacturing facility that can provide the high quality standards required by the new European directive for cord blood banking. The investment also vertically integrates the service offerings of CyGenics from adult stem cell storage services and cell growth consumables products to include cell therapy manufacturing services.
PharmaCell and CyGenics are two leading partners in the multi-national PACRIMA R&D collaboration. The mandate of PACRIMA is to develop a platform for growing antigen specific T cells and to test whether these cells are suitable for therapeutic use in the treatment of cancer.
PACRIMA has been awarded a EURO1,000,000 (approximately A$1.7 million) grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to foster international collaboration of Dutch organisations in research and development.
The announcements were made at a special ceremony at the Netherlands Pavilion during the BIO 2006 annual convention and exhibition in Chicago. The event was attended by a Dutch delegation, led by Consul General Willem Schiff, and by a Singapore delegation, led by Philip Yeo, Chairman of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Singapore. At the ceremony, a cheque for EURO1,000,000 was presented by Director of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, Mr Jochum Haakma.
"Science recognizes no borders," said Mr Yeo. "The international collaboration between Cygenics of Singapore and Pharmacell of Holland and the grant for PACRIMA is evidence of that. This will also strengthen the linkages between the Singaporean and Dutch biotechnology communities."
"Today marks an important beginning in cross-border collaborations between the Netherlands and Singapore," said Mr Haakma. "I am pleased to see two companies as forward looking as PharmaCell and CyGenics, come together, and developing new technologies with the goal of ultimately bettering the lives of cancer patients everywhere."
"This is a significant development in CyGenics' history," said Steven Fang, the company's Group CEO. "Today we mark the beginning of our plans to establish our core businesses in Europe, as well as taking a major step forward in our scientific endeavours. We could not have asked for a better partner in these initiatives than PharmaCell."
Contact
Steven Fang, Group CEO, CyGenics Ltd
Ph : +61 (0)400 933 243
Email: steven.fang@cygenics.com
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