A Vote of Confidence in Kadimastem: Senior Scientists from the Weizmann Institute Invest in the Company

NESS ZIONA SCIENCE PARK, Israel, August 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Israeli biotechnology company Kadimastem (TASE: KDST) announced today an investment in the company by two senior scientists from the medical and biotechnology fields. The company signed two separate investment agreements, by way of private placement, with Professor Ruth Arnon and Professor Michel Revel, a controlling shareholder, director in the company and its Chief Scientist, in the amount of NIS 720K (NIS 360K each).

Professor Ruth Arnon, co-developer of Teva's blockbuster MS drug Copaxone, is a Professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science and over the years has held various senior positions at the Weizmann Institute, including Head of the Immunology Department, Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Vice President; an Israel Prize laureate and past President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, she was a member of the steering committee for the World Health Organization and a member of UNESCO's panel of experts for biological materials.

Professor Michel Revel, developer of Merck's blockbuster MS drug Rebif, is Professor Emeritus of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the former Head of the Virology Department at the Weizmann Institute; an Israel Prize laureate and past Chairman of the Israel National Bioethics Council, he was a member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO and Chairman of the National Committee for Biotechnology in Israel.

The company sees the investment of the two scientists as a very important vote of confidence in the company.

Under the agreement, the company will issue each investor 167,442 ordinary shares of the company at a share price of NIS 2.15. In addition, each investor will be granted 167,442 non-tradeable warrants at an exercise price of NIS 3, such that the consideration for exercise of said warrants will be in an amount of around NIS 1M. The warrants will be fully vested upon grant and will be exercisable for a period of 18 months from the date of signing of the investment agreements.

About Kadimastem 

Kadimastem (http://www.kadimastem.com) is a biotechnology company that specializes in the development of human stem cell-based medical solutions for the treatment of diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS and Multiple Sclerosis. The company was founded in August 2009 by Professor Michel Revel and Yossi Ben Yosef, and is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: KDST). The company's chairman is Dr. Eli Opper, formerly the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Labor and Trade. The company's investors, in addition to the founders, include Altshuler Shaham Investment House, foreign investors (Julien Ruggieri and Avi Meizler), and additional institutional investors.

Kadimastem was founded based on patent protected technology that was developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Based on the company's unique platform, Kadimastem is developing two types of medical applications: A. Regenerative medicine, which repairs and replaces organs and tissue by using functioning cells differentiated from stem cells. The company focuses on transplanting healthy brain cells to support the survivability of nerve cells as cell therapy for ALS, and transplanting insulin-secreting pancreatic cells for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes; B. Drug screening platforms, which use functional human cells and tissues to discover new medicinal drugs. The company has two collaboration agreements with leading global pharmaceutical companies.  

Kadimastem has an extensive scientific advisory board, featuring prominent scientists and pioneers: in the embryonic stem cells field, Professor Benjamin Reubinoff, Director of the Hadassah Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center and Senior Physician at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hadassah University Medical Center; Professor Joseph Itskovich, world renowned expert and pioneer in pluripotent stem cell research and former head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at RAMBAM Medical Center; in the neurodegenerative disease field, Professor Tamir Ben-Hur, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hadassah University Medical Center; and in the diabetes field, Professor Shimon Efrat, professor of Human Molecular Genetics and Juvenile Diabetes at Tel Aviv University and a world renowned expert in cell replacement therapy for diabetes and Professor Eddy Karnieli, former Director of the Institute for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the RAMBAM Medical Center, and a world renowned expert in these fields.

Yehuda Feinberg
Tel: +972-73-7971604
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Kadimastem