ReNeuron, the UK-based stem cell research and development company, is today presenting ground-breaking efficacy data with its lead stem cell line at the American Neurological Association Annual Meeting (ANA) in Toronto, Canada.
Following its recent acquisition by St James MGP Limited, ReNeuron Holdings PLC has now completed its re-registration as a private company under its new name, ReNeuron (UK) Limited. Effective 1 October, Dr Martin Edwards has resigned as Chief Executive Officer and will leave the ReNeuron Board to take up a position at Novo A/S. Also effective from this date, Michael Hunt, currently Chief Financial Officer, is appointed Chief Operating Officer.
Mark Clement, Chief Executive Officer of Merlin Biosciences, and Mark Docherty, Investment Director at Merlin Biosciences, have joined the ReNeuron Board as non-executive Directors. Professor Trevor Jones will continue as non-executive Chairman, his fellow directors now being Mark Clement and Mark Docherty (representing both Merlin and St James’s MGP Limited), together with Michael Hunt and Dr John Sinden (Chief Scientific Officer).
Professor Jones said:
On behalf of the Board, I should like to offer my sincerest thanks to Martin Edwards for his significant contribution to ReNeuron’s success to date, and to wish him well in his next endeavour. I should also like to congratulate Michael Hunt on his appointment as Chief Operating Officer and to welcome Mark Clement and Mark Docherty to the Board.
ReNeuron’s core stem cell technology continues to carry great promise, and I am pleased and excited to remain involved with the Company as it enters its next phase of development.’
ReNeuron is a UK bio-pharmaceutical company developing proprietary treatments for neurological disorders. Its focus is the development of innovative neural stem cell transplantation technology for the treatment of brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and stroke. The Company is also exploiting the use of its stem cell lines as a drug discovery platform through its ReNcell product, which is marketed to pharmaceutical companies and academia for use as a drug discovery tool and for general research. ReNeuron’s stem cells also have the capability to form neural networks suitable for use in biosensors, currently being developed as a potential detection tool to combat bio-terrorism or as a drug-screening tool in the pharmaceutical industry.
Professor Trevor Jones
+ 44 (0)207 930 3477
Michael Hunt ReNeuron (UK) Limited
+44 (0)1483 302560
ReNeuron’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr John Sinden, today provided an update on the Company’s stem cell transplantation programmes at the Marcus Evans 2nd Annual International Stem Cells Conference in London.
ReNeuron will present strongly positive pre-clinical efficacy data on its soluble receptor, ReN1820, at the �Research Insights into Interstitial Cystitis (I.C.) Symposium’ on October 30th 2003 in Alexandria, V.A., USA.
ReNeuron welcomes today’s announcement that a research team at Kings College London have been successful in growing the UK’s first human embryonic stem cell line. Although ReNeuron uses foetal, as opposed to embryonic, stem cell lines in its development programmes, the Company believes in the broad potential of stem cell research for therapeutic purposes, and thus welcomes any advances in the field, generally.
ReNeuron has previously demonstrated its support of wider stem cell research through its intention of making available for academic use a well characterised and screened human brain stem cell line for deposit into the Medical Research Council’s newly-established UK stem cell bank.
ReNeuron’s focus remains the development of ground-breaking cell transplantation therapies to treat patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, stroke and other diseases of the brain. The Company recently announced that it had now generated commercially viable numbers of neural stem cell lines that are genetically stable in long term culture, an important breakthrough for the Company.
ReNeuron Holdings PLC is a UK bio-pharmaceutical company developing proprietary treatments for neurological disorders. Its focus is the development of innovative neural stem cell transplantation technology for the treatment of brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and stroke. The Company is also exploiting the use of its stem cell lines as a drug discovery platform through its ReNcell product, which is marketed to pharmaceutical companies and academia for use as a drug discovery tool and for general research. ReNeuron’s stem cells also have the capability to form neural networks suitable for use in biosensors, currently being developed to detect harmful agents in the event of bio-terrorism attacks or for use as a drug screening tool in the pharmaceutical industry.
In addition to its stem cell programmes, ReNeuron is also developing more conventional drugs targeting diseases of the nervous system. ReNeuron has in-licensed two protein-based therapeutics, ReN1820 and ReN1826, which are currently in pre-clinical development.
Michael Hunt, ReNeuron Holdings PLC
44 (0)1483 302560
ReNeuron has received confirmation that its immortalised, human, neural stem cells are genetically stable in long-term culture. Long-term genotypic stability is an essential pre-requisite for transplantation into the brain, meaning that this confirmation is an important step forward for the Company’s cell therapy ambitions.
KPMG Corporate Finance, on behalf of St James’s MGP Limited (“St James’s”), announced on 6th May 2003 that the Offer for ReNeuron has become wholly unconditional. In the Offer document dated 8th April 2003, it was stated that St James’s intends, following the Offer becoming unconditional, to cancel the AIM trading facility.
Not for release, publication or distribution in, into or from the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan
Offer declared unconditional in all respects
Not for release, publication or distribution in, into or from the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan
Level of Acceptances and Extension
ReNeuron Holdings plc (the “Company”)
Result of EGM
The Company announces that at today’s extraordinary general meeting the ordinary resolution proposed at the meeting was passed. The resolution, set out in the Offer Document published on 8 April 2003, permits Dr Martin Edwards, Dr John Sinden and Dr Helen Hodges to participate in a share exchange in connection with the offer for the Company by St. James’s MGP Limited.
