Kadimastem and Defymed Awarded Grant in the EU's Prestigious Eurostars Program for the Clinical Development of an Integrated Product for the Treatment of Diabetes

NESS ZIONA, Israel, November 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Israeli biotechnology company Kadimastem (TASE: KDST) announces the approval by the European Union and the Israel Innovation Authority, to receive a joint research grant under the Eurostars program, for the clinical development of the company's technology for the treatment of diabetes, together with the medical device developed by Defymed.

Kadimastem is developing an innovative cell therapy for diabetes by producing functional cells capable of producing and releasing insulin according to blood sugar levels.

Defymed has developed MailPan®, a Bio-Artificial Pancreas device designed, using suitable cells such as Kadimastem's cells, to treat diabetes in patients without the use of immunosuppressants. As reported, the company signed an agreement with Defymed on June 14, 2018 on the feasibility of a combined solution for the treatment of diabetes.

The Eurostars program is managed by the EUREKA organization, which supports highly innovative technologies to bring them closer to the market, and is supported by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program.

The grant will enable the expansion of the collaborative activity between the two companies. The emphasis is on completing the regulatory requirements necessary to complete the development of the joint product to the stage of initiation of a clinical trial.

Mr. Yossi Ben-Yosef, CEO of the company, said: "I am pleased that the European Union and the Innovation Authority recognize the potential and ability of the company to bring a product to the market. The collaboration of Kadimastem with Defymed and the research grant, facilitated with the help of the France Israel R&D Partnership group in the French Embassy in Israel, are part of the company's business strategy that encourages international cooperation to provide a qualitative advantage in advancing product development."

Prof. Michel Revel, Kadimastem's Chief Scientist, commented: "The receipt of the prestigious Eurostars grant is a recognition of the importance of Kadimastem's achievements in the development of cell therapy designed to release diabetic patients from the need for urgent injections of insulin, and in fact returns to the diabetic patients the functioning of pancreatic cells affected by the disease. Through the grant, the possibility of implantation of the cells developed by Kadimastem into the Defymed device will be tested, and the collaboration between the two companies is likely to accelerate the implementation of treatment for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who suffer from diabetes and are in need of insulin."

About Kadimastem 

Kadimastem Ltd. (www.Kadimastem.com)  is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing industrial regenerative therapies based on human embryonic stem cells (hESC) for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, as well as diabetes. The company was founded in 2009 by Prof. Michel Revel and Yossi Ben Yosef and is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: KDST). The company's chairman is Dr. Eli Opper, formerly the Chief Scientist of Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor, and the company's Scientific Advisory Board consists of leading scientists and pioneers in their fields. The company's investors, in addition to its founders, include Altshuler Shaham Investment House, foreign investors (Julien Ruggieri and Avi Meizler) and additional institutional investors. 

Kadimastem was founded on the basis of patent-protected technologies developed in Prof. Michel Revel's laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Based on the company's unique technological platform, Kadimastem develops regenerative therapies to repair and replace tissues and organs by using functioning cells differentiated from stem cells. The company focuses on transplanting healthy brain cells to support the survivability of damaged nerve cells as cell therapy for ALS and transplanting insulin-producing pancreatic cell for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes. 

Kadimastem has an extensive scientific advisory board, featuring prominent scientists and pioneers: In the embryonic stem cell field - Professor Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor, a world renowned expert and pioneer in pluripotent stem cell research and former head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rambam Medical Center, serves both as a director and a senior strategic consultant in the company, and Prof. 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; in the neurodegenerative disease field - Prof. Tamir Ben Hur, Head of the Department of Neurology and Division of Medical Neurosciences at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem; and in the diabetes field, Prof. 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 Prof. 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. 

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

SOURCE Kadimastem