Healthcare Industry News:   diabetic foot ulcer 

Devices Wound Care Regenerative Medicine

 News Release - December 11, 2007

Organogenesis, Inc. Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese Regenerative Medicine Company

Companies Signed Agreement during Governor Patrick's China Trade Mission

CANTON, Mass. & SHANGHAI, China--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Organogenesis, Inc., the world's most successful regenerative medicine company, announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s National Tissue Engineering Center (NTEC), a leading stem cell and regenerative medicine consortium, headquartered in Shanghai.

Organogenesis formed the three-phase agreement with the NTEC this past week, while visiting China as a delegate of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s previously announced trade mission.

“We are excited about this new development, and see this partnership as an opportunity to open up the Chinese market for our company’s proven technologies,” said Geoff Mackay, CEO of Organogenesis, Inc. “The National Tissue Engineering Center is an ideal partner for Organogenesis, as international leaders in the fields of cell therapy and plastic surgery, with strong support from the Chinese government.”

The National Tissue Engineering Center is a central government-funded private company. Its founder, Professor Yiling Cao, is a renowned plastic surgeon who was trained at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where coincidentally, Organogenesis was originally founded. The NTEC comprises more than 70 scientists and growing teams of regulatory, production and commercial professionals. NTEC has recently completed the development of a brand new state-of-the-art facility in a Shanghai Technology Park with manufacturing, research and development laboratories, and business offices.

According to the signed agreement between the two firms, the first phase of the partnership will commence immediately, and will include the commercialization and exporting of existing Organogenesis, Inc. technology – including its signature product, Apligraf® -- in the Chinese market, and eventually throughout Asia. Currently, the field of use in the memorandum of understanding covers wound healing and scars. However, performance milestones may expand the scope of the agreement to include broader surgical uses.

Phases II and III will follow, triggered by milestones achieved between the two companies. Phase II will include manufacturing existing Organogenesis, Inc. cell therapies via a manufacturing site in Shanghai (which will be necessary due to the short shelf life of living cell technology, including Apligraf). Phase III will include the co-development of new technologies, which may be custom-designed for Chinese market needs. As a parent company of the partnership, Organogenesis will hold the commercial rights for all Western markets for new technology developed.

Governor Patrick’s recent trade mission included business executives, academic leaders and senior government officials, as a part of the growing relationship between the state and China. The recent seven-day trade mission to Beijing and Shanghai focused on exploring opportunities to strengthen collaboration around clean energy, life sciences, education and transportation.

“I am honored to have taken part in Governor Patrick’s trade mission, and the opportunity to meet with the country’s many progressive life sciences companies, universities, research institutions and healthcare providers,” continued Mackay. “It served as an important catalyst to complete this deal, as it effectively put a stake in the ground and helped to hasten the pace of our negotiations. Our living cell therapies have helped to treat hundreds of thousands of patients around the world, and the company’s proven technology will now benefit millions of Chinese patients suffering with chronic, open wounds.”

As the world’s leading Regenerative Medicine company, Organogenesis has broadened its international scope and ties over the past few years. The company has recently expanded to over 300 U.S.-based employees, and has established European headquarters located in Switzerland.

“We are ready to expand beyond our position as the leading U.S. regenerative medicine company, which has been strong for some time,” continued MacKay. “We are undertaking aggressive commercialization plans throughout Europe and Asia, and this new agreement fits directly into our long term globalization strategy.”

Organogenesis is the first company to successfully mass produce living regenerative medicine products – reaching hundreds of thousands of patients – and to have reached sustained profitability. Its signature product, Apligraf®, is the first mass-produced bio-engineered cell therapy to have received FDA approval, and is used by doctors successfully in treating patients with diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers in the U.S. and other markets across the world.

About Regenerative Medicine

A new frontier in healthcare, regenerative medicine is an evolving therapeutic approach that utilizes living cells to repair or replace body tissue damaged by injury, disease or the aging process. It is a multidisciplinary field involving biology, medicine and engineering.

Regenerative therapies rely on the body’s own natural ability to repair and regenerate, and enable the body to heal itself Regenerative medicine also empowers scientists to grow living cells, tissues and organs in the laboratory, and to safely implant them into the human body for the purposes of healing.

About Organogenesis, Inc.

Massachusetts based Organogenesis, Inc. is the world's most successful regenerative medicine company and is focused in areas of bio-active wound healing, bio-surgery and bio-aesthetics. Organogenesis delivers living tissue "on demand," and its mission is to bring the medical marvel of regenerative medicine products to patients and to standardize their use in everyday medical care. For more information, visit www.organogenesis.com.


Source: Organogenesis

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