ViaCyte, Inc., a privately held regenerative medicine company, has entered into a rights agreement with Janssen Research & Development LLC, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The agreement provides Janssen with a future right to evaluate a transaction related to the VC-01 combination product that ViaCyte is developing for Type 1 diabetes. This right will continue through the initial evaluation of clinical efficacy of VC-01. ViaCyte received $20 million from Janssen and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation. The payment included a rights fee and a note convertible into equity at a later date.  

ViaCyte recently announced the allowance by the US Food and Drug Administration of an investigational new drug application for the VC-01 product candidate, which will permit ViaCyte to begin clinical evaluation of the VC-01 product candidate for Type 1 diabetes.

ViaCyte's VC-01 product candidate consists of pancreatic progenitor cells, called PEC-01 cells, which are derived from a proprietary human embryonic stem-cell line, encapsulated in ViaCyte's proprietary Encaptra device.  When implanted under the skin, the PEC-01 cells are specifically designed to mature and further differentiate into insulin-producing beta and other endocrine cells that regulate blood glucose in a manner similar or identical to the islets that normally comprise the endocrine pancreas.

ViaCyte is headquartered in San Diego, California with additional operations in Athens, Georgia.

Source: ViaCyte