Israeli start-up Gamida-Cell has been chosen to receive the “Best Abstracts Award” by the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. The award will be presented to the Gamida-Cell research team on February 13th in Orlando, Florida.
Gamida-Cell is active in the field of blood stem cell expansion for cancer and autoimmune disease therapies. The Gamida-Cell abstract describes test results in which the injection of expanded populations of human stem cells restored cardiac function in animals that had suffered a heart attack. Because of these results, the company has fast tracked plans to commence a Phase I/II study in 2004.
Gamida-Cell was founded in 1998. Since then, the company has raised $20 million in three rounds of financing. Shareholders include Mordechai (Motti) Zisser, Biomedical Investments, Teva Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:TEVA; TASE:TEVA), and venture capital funds Denali Ventures, Auriga Ventures, Pamot Rehovot Advisers’ Pamot Venture Capital fund and Comverse subsidiary Comsor Venture Fund.
Gamida-Cell CEO Ehud Marom, a veteran in the healthcare field, is a former VP of Teva and Peptor, and one of the founders of Karma Pharm, which was acquired for $2 million by Biodar Pharma last month. Marom told "Globes" that last March, Gamida-Cell signed a strategic co-operation agreement with Teva (Nasdaq: TEVA). Under the agreement, Teva invested $3 million in Gamida-Cell, with an option for further investment once clinical trials were completed. Marom said this investment would be about $25 million, plus a 15% stake in the company.
Marom said that the company was now in a much better position to raise capital and sign strategic agreements. In the coming year, he said, Gamida-Cell would complete the first two phases of clinical trials, the goal being to realize the agreement with Teva. Marom also did not rule out the possibility of the company being acquired by a large corporation. He believes that if the market continues to be positive, major companies will seek out acquisitions. Gamida-Cell was certainly a good candidate, he said.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on Thursday, February 05, 2004