Plasticell founder named “Best CEO in the Stem Cell industry” by European CEO magazine
Plasticell, a developer of stem cell technologies and cell-based therapies, has announced that the Company’s founder, Dr. Yen Choo, has been named “Best CEO in the Stem Cell Industry” by European CEO magazine. This accolade in part recognises Plasticell’s success in organic growth as well as its business model for the development of stem cell therapies and regenerative medicines.
Plasticell, best known for its award-winning CombiCult® stem cell platform technology, has partnered this in the stem cell space with leading pharma and biotech companies, alongside in-house development of drug and cell-based therapies. The company’s new website, launched in January 2017, highlights the therapeutic pipeline which is chiefly focused on the expansion of hematopoietic stem cells and the manufacture of various high value blood cell types.
In addition, Plasticell has leveraged an open innovation partnership with GSK and funding from its corporate venture arm, to spin out a pioneering company, Progenitor Therapeutics, focused on the discovery of small molecule regenerative drugs for osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy.
Dr. Choo, currently Executive Chairman of Plasticell and CEO of Progenitor Therapeutics, commented: “The group’s therapeutic activities – now split between Plasticell’s cell therapy development and Progenitor’s regenerative drug discovery – has been built up historically with a minimal amount of angel and institutional equity investment (approx. ?10m), re-cycling of income from CombiCult® partnerships and more than 15 non-dilutive UK government grants, many of which have successfully delivered multi-million pound projects. In this way, we have managed to diversify and progress our therapeutic pipeline while delivering exceptional shareholder value.”
In addition to its own therapeutics development projects, Plasticell engages in strategic, bespoke cell and gene therapy collaborations to advance partners’ products, drawing on its extensive experience in stem cell biology and differentiation, and in producing rare human cell types for drug discovery applications. Historically, the company has formed alliances to progress its therapeutic projects, facilitate drug discovery and improve product manufacturing in cell therapy, gene therapy and cancer immunotherapy. Partners range from big pharma companies such as GSK, JCR Pharmaceuticals, Laboratoires Pierre Fabre and UCB Pharma; technology providers such as Merck Millipore, Sigma Aldrich; Hamilton Company, Molecular Devices and Sphere Fluidics; public research institutions such as NHS Blood and Transplant, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC); and leading academic centres including University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College and UCL.