Orgenesis Inc., a development-stage company with a novel therapeutic technology dedicated to converting a patient’s own liver cells into functioning insulin-producing cells as a treatment for diabetes, announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Orgenesis Ltd., has entered into a process development agreement with ATMI, Inc., a global technology company and leader in single-use bioprocess solutions.
Pursuant to the PD Agreement, ATMI will supply Orgenesis with a complete disposable manufacturing process for the expansion of a patient’s liver cells outside of the body, an important step in enabling the Company’s therapeutic technology dedicated to converting a patient’s own liver cells into functioning insulin-producing cells as a treatment for diabetes.
In addition, Orgenesis and ATMI have entered into a subscription agreement (the “Subscription Agreement) pursuant to which ATMI purchased 1,526,718 units of Orgenesis’ securities for gross proceeds of $1.3 million. Each Unit consists of one share of our common stock and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant may be exercised pursuant to the terms of the warrant certificate for a period of two years from issuance at an exercise price of $1.00, subject to adjustments as set out in the warrant certificate.
“We believe the groundbreaking Integrity(R) Xpansion(R) technology from ATMI will allow us to produce a sufficient amount of AIP (Autologous Insulin Producing) cells for transplantation back to the patient’s liver in a highly efficient and cost-effective manner,” commented Sav DiPasquale, CEO of Orgenesis. “We look forward to building a successful relationship with ATMI, another very strong collaboration partner for Orgenesis as we continue to work towards initiating clinical trials of our technology.”
Under its Integrity product line, ATMI developed the Xpansion bioreactor – a compact, fully controlled and single-use system based on stacked plates, made from the same plastic material as multiple-tray stacks. Keeping the same environment for the cells enables easy and straightforward transfer from multiple-tray stacks process to Xpansion bioreactor. One single Xpansion bioreactor can replace up to 200 traditional stacked trays, providing an efficient solution for the production of large amount of cells.
Senior Vice President and General Manager of ATMI LifeSciences, Mario Philips, added, “The Integrity Xpansion Multiplate Single-Use Bioreactor technology was specially developed by ATMI for addressing the scaling-up challenges of cell therapy manufacturing processes. This fully industrial technology platform is very suitable for adherent fragile cell culture applications, such as the adult liver cells. We are very excited to provide this technology to Orgenesis as they work to develop a very promising new therapy for diabetes that overcomes the problem of donor shortage and reduces the risk of transplant rejection.”
