Merger
MedCell Bioscience Ltd, the regenerative medicine company, is to merge with the Imperial College London spin-out NovaThera Ltd. The combined company, which will trade under the MedCell Bioscience name, has a post-merger valuation of about £30 million.
NovaThera brings two key platform technologies: TheraGlass, a bioactive glass and NovaPod, a rotating bio-processor.
TheraGlass interacts with the body’s tissues to stimulate cell growth and has potential applications ranging from craniofacial reconstruction to drug delivery. The NovaPod is a ready-to-launch system for 3D bio-processing, allowing dynamic media analysis and enabling the rapid and improved scale-up of stem cell culture.
MedCell will continue to further develop its MS-Ten programme, which uses autologous mesenchymal stem cells to promote tendon and ligament regeneration, in humans.
The technology has already been successfully commercialised for treating equivalent injuries in race horses in Europe, North and South America, Australia, and the Middle East.
MedCell, previously known as Vetcell, was founded in 2002 in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College and the Institute for Orthopaedic and Musculoskeletal Science, both in London.
Receive the Funding Newswire [full access requires a subscription] each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
