ViaCyte to Present at GTCbio 2015 Diabetes Summit

SAN DIEGO, April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ViaCyte, Inc., a privately-held regenerative medicine company with the first pluripotent stem cell-derived islet replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes in clinical trials, today announced two presentations at GTCbio 2015 Diabetes Summit in Boston. Dr. Kevin D'Amour, Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer, will deliver an oral presentation, and Dr. Alan Agulnick, Distinguished Scientist, will present a poster covering recent advances in stem cell therapy research. 

Details of the presentations are as follows:

Dr. D'Amour will present on the company's VC-01™ product candidate for the treatment of type 1 diabetes, which recently entered the clinical phase of development. A Phase 1/2 trial called STEP ONE, or Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of VC-01 Combination Product in Type 1 Diabetes, was launched in September 2014. The dose-escalating study is currently testing the product candidate at a sub-therapeutic dose. 

In his poster, Dr. Agulnick will discuss results in animal models utilizing insulin-positive cells generated in vitro from pluripotent stem cells. 

A number of advances have been made recently in the development of stem cell-based therapies for type 1 diabetes. ViaCyte's VC-01™ product candidate, being assessed in the STEP ONE clinical trial, employs pluripotent stem cell-derived PEC-01™ pancreatic progenitor cells implanted within the Encaptra® macro-encapsulation device. The VC-01 product has been demonstrated to regulate glucose levels in animal models. PEC-01 progenitor cells reflect a cell type present in a developing embryo and have the capability to survive in a hypoxic environment such as the post-implant subcutaneous space, and to promote the vascularization needed for the implanted cells to mature and thrive. In November 2014, ViaCyte announced that it had been granted U.S. patent 8,859,286, which claims additional methods for producing pancreatic cells, including cell types further differentiated beyond the progenitor stage to single-hormonal islet-like cells.  

For more information about the event, please visit: http://viacyte.com/news-events-2/viactye-events/

About ViaCyte

ViaCyte is a privately-held regenerative medicine company focused on developing a novel cell replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes. ViaCyte is conducting a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of the Company's lead product candidate VC-01 in patients with type 1 diabetes who have minimal to no insulin-producing beta cell function. ViaCyte's VC-01 combination product is based on the production of pancreatic progenitor cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells. These progenitor cells are implanted in a durable and retrievable encapsulation device. Once implanted and matured, these cells are designed to secrete insulin and other regulatory factors in response to blood glucose levels. The VC-01 product is being developed as a potential long-term diabetes treatment without immune suppression, and without risk of hypoglycemia or other diabetes-related complications. 

ViaCyte is headquartered in San Diego, California with additional operations in Athens, Georgia. The Company is funded in part by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and JDRF. 

For more information please visit www.viacyte.com. Connect with ViaCyte here: www.twitter.com/viacyte and www.facebook.com/viacyte.

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SOURCE ViaCyte, Inc.

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