Epistem, the small but growing stem cell research company, has signed a crucial deal with Novartis.
News of the deal, which provides $4m (£2.85m) upfront and two years' worth of funding, prompted the share price to climb as much as 20 per cent. Epistem will develop compounds for research from its epithelial stem cell platform. Simply put, this is drug development based on proteins that regulate cells in skin tissue - 80 per cent of solid tumour adult cancers originate there.
Epistem will also receive $45m in milestone payments from Novartis per successful product, but Epistem chief executive Dr Matthew Walls admits this will not happen tomorrow: "We've made good progress over the past seven years to take lead (compounds) into collaboration. But it will take at least two years to see the first of the leads emerging," he says.
This adds development funding to an otherwise profitable business model, producing contact research services to a range of pharmaceutical and large biotech companies. The company specialises in oncology or cancer treatments and inflammatory bowel diseases.
