ProKidney Announces $62 million Acquisition of inRegen

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- ProKidney announces the acquisition of inRegen and its affiliate, Twin City Bio, LLC.  ProKidney, LLC, was founded by a group of investors led by Pablo Legorreta, the Founder and CEO of Royalty Pharma.  ProKidney has been initially capitalized with $75 million to finance the purchase of inRegen and Twin City Bio and to fund the clinical development of inRegen's Renal Advanced Cell Therapy (ReACT).

ReACT is an autologous cell therapy in which a small amount of the patient's own kidney cells is extracted via a conventional biopsy, these cells (including a high proportion of the SIX2 progenitor cell population) are expanded in the lab over 4 to 6 weeks and then re-implanted into the patient's diseased kidney.  The goal of ReACT is to harnesses the body's intrinsic ability to repair damaged kidney tissues and restore them to native-like organs and tissues.  If successful, ReACT has the potential to stabilize or improve renal function in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and delay or eliminate the need for dialysis and organ transplantation.

"We are pleased to announce the acquisition of inRegen," said Legorreta.  "ReACT is one of the most exciting cell therapies currently in development.  It holds the great potential to transform standard-of-care for the treatment of renal failure, addressing a large unmet medical need."

Tim Bertram, CEO of inRegen, stated, "The acquisition by ProKidney and partnership with Pablo Legorreta will provide inRegen with the financial resources and industry contacts to accelerate the development of this personalized novel medicine, bringing it to an underserved patient population.  We believe this relationship will greatly improve the likelihood of near term success for this breakthrough therapy."

For more information, contact Tim Bertram at [email protected]. If you would like more information on the clinical trials, please visit clinicaltrials.gov or our clinical trial recruitment site: reactstudy.com. Please visit www.inregen.com

About ReACT
ReACT is currently in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease.  This trial is being conducted at over one dozen top clinical sites throughout the world.  The Phase II clinical trials are based on a successful Phase I clinical trial, in which some of the first patients to be injected have been followed for over four years and remain dialysis-free.  The Phase I trial demonstrated that ReACT was well tolerated by patients with moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease.  The ongoing Phase II program utilizes a newly developed percutaneous injection method that is conducted using conscious sedation.  The new method has allowed minimally invasive methods to enhance the safety profile and provide equivalent or better efficacy than was seen in Phase I.

About inRegen
inRegen, is a biotechnology company focused on developing advanced cellular therapies for treating chronic kidney disease (CKD).  Our technology is based on over 14 years of proprietary breakthroughs in progenitor cell biology research, development and manufacturing. inRegen produces a personalized autologous cell therapy, by using the patient's own cells and proprietary methods of manufacturing.  Since ReACT is made of the patient's own cells, there is no risk of rejection and no need for lifelong immunosuppressive therapy as is required in transplantation.

SOURCE ProKidney, LLC