The biotech company Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., which develops a variety of stem cell therapies, has entered into another licensing agreement with BioTime Inc., which is also a major player in the stem cell field. Although the agreement was struck on August 15th, the companies made the announcement today. This agreement is not the first of its type between the two organizations, which have worked together before in patent licensing agreements. As before, this agreement involves a susidiary of BioTime Inc., known as Embryome Sciences.
BioTime is headed by CEO Michael West, who was formerly with Advanced Cell Technology. Under the terms of the new agreement, Embryome Sciences will receive worldwide rights to the patent that is owned by Advanced Cell Technology, in exchange for a $200,000 licensing fee which Embryome Sciences must pay, as well as a 5% royalty on sales and 20% of fees for sublicensing to a third party, with a royalty cap of $600,000. In a previous, recent licensing agreement that was announced on August 11th, Embryome Sciences licensed the technology for producing embryonic progenitor cells from Advanced Cell Technology, for which Embryome Sciences paid a $250,000 licensing fee plus an 8% royalty on sales, with a royalty cap of $1 million.
Unlike the previous licensing agreement, however, the current agreement involves patented technology for the transformation of skin and other adult human cells into pluripotent cells which are able, through the manipulation of cellular controls, to differentiate into various types of tissue that are found throughout the human body.
