Whilst we don't know exactly where the smell stems from (barbie or sushi), the announcements/newsletter make/s it clear that it's not the cells (punts intended). Vultures circling on our thread, trying to tell us that our technology/patents/license option agreement with FujiFilm is/are dead, after telling us not to make assumptions, now assume to know the actual meaning of the word "extension".
I understand why these assumption caused a bit of panic:
Regience K.K. and Apceth.
For anyone that hasn't been around at the time:
Regience K.K. was meant to take up an exclusive 2 year option to commercialise our MSC technology in Japan and certain Asian countries, in return for a deal worth A$2.5 mio (via upfront payment and share allocation). It got extended and in the end Cynata decided not to pursue.
do not advertise external links.au/companies/news/135034/cynata-therapeutics-and-japans-regience-kk-in-stem-cell-alliance-67327.htmlThere was also
Apceth and a deal that was to potentially exceed A$40m (upfront and milestone payments) and a very vague timeline:
https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20160509/pdf/4373cjn4v0vk0h.pdfIt fell through because Apceth decided to shift their focus.
How it was handled, was in my opinion pretty poor:
https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20180420/pdf/43tc4mzj3yhjty.pdfWhilst I don't rate Regience K.K. as such, Apceth at the time was perceived as failure and the SP took a blow, because the deal fell through. In hindsight, it is obvious why it fell through:
https://www.apceth.com/hitachi-chemical-co-ltd-acquire-apceth-biopharma-gmbh/When comparing the Apceth website before and after the acquisition, you see that their whole MSC pipeline is gone:
18/12/18:
25/03/19:
Apceth "was" walked away from their MSC pipeline all together (their "Science and Technology" tab disappeared as well, given no pipeline), reverted to its core business of contract manufacturing it seems.
In absence of anything other than both asx announcements, the newsletter sent to shareholders, FujiFilm's media releases (and the substantial increase thereof in recent months), I have no doubt that this transaction will go forward and therefore I will be amongst the buyers (not to be taken as financial advice).
Perhaps a good wake-up call (and credit to
@tubbyguts for pointing out that it is not signed until - it's signed) and an opportunity to approach this in a more humble way, given that prior to last Thursday, a licence uptake of GvHD alone was considered a disappointment...
A lot has changed since we first entered into the initial agreement with FujiFilm:
Internal restructure of CDI split into two business units: life science and therapeutics),
Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd - completed tender offer and launched Fine Chemical Division,
Collaboration with Takeda to develop regenerative medicine therapies,
New manufacturing plants built & upgrades for Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd and CDI,
Acquisition of Irvine Scientific and IS Japan,
Global partnership agreement with Taylor Swift
,
Acquisition of manufacturing site from Biogen etc.
FujiFilm itself has undergone a transformation from a national player with a recent acquisition overseas in a niche industry, to a now international heavyweight, with multiple purchases/restructures taken place internally that could have caused for 'structural changes' to be made, which would explain that there was a need to add that the material terms remain unchanged.
And as stated before, our technology so far has lived up to its expectations:
"CTM CRC has now shown that the coated dressing has broad utility across a range of therapeutic cells from different sources. Dressings seeded with adult stem cells accelerated healing in preclinical wound models relative to the dressing alone. Similar observations were made in models of diabetic wounds. One stem cell line, which resulted in significantly faster healing than the more commonly studied bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, was provided under a collaborative agreement with Cynata."
https://ctmcrc2013.app.box.com/s/q92azu5rgskuie1z6h786e31rc8y0s3nInteresting enough, an asthma patent got published last week (21/03/19):
Applicant is Cynata, inventors are Chrishan Samuel and Simon Royce
"METHOD FOR TREATING ALLERGIC AIRWAYS DISEASE (AAD) / ASTHMA
[...]
However, MSCs have not consistently demonstrated relief of the adverse symptoms associated with chronic disease settings, and the outcomes of MSC treatment can vary depending on their tissue origin/ source, extent of culture expansion, donor-dependent viability and efficacy, and the timing of their administration.
[...]
Additionally, as only a relatively small number of MSCs can be isolated from each donor organ, a continuous supply of donors would be needed to facilitate sufficient numbers for experimental and commercial use.
[...]
However, the current findings that MCA- MSCs markedly suppressed AI by ~75% and goblet cell metaplasia by ~50% indicates that MCA-MSCs mediate greater immunomodulatory properties compared to MSCs derived from the human bone marrow or adipose tissue.”
https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2019051536&tab=PCTDESCRIPTION&office=&prevFilter=&sortOption=Pub+Date+Desc&queryString=&recNum=1541&maxRec=73993596Remember, the above is IMV, DYOR, JMT, IMHO (because by adding that it turns assumptions into facts).
(20min delay)