Fund Named After King Helps Bring Stem Cell ‘Prince’ to Wales
The company announced its intention to relocate from its current headquarters in Guildford, England earlier this week, explaining that the move was motivated by financial assistance – some £7.8m ($11.9m) - it received from the Welsh Government.
CEO Michael Hunt confirmed this, telling BioPharma-Reporter.com Government support mechanisms arranged through the funding organisation Arthurian Life Sciences prompted the move.
He explained that while a Welsh site has yet to be chosen, several in the south of the country are currently being considered for what is likely to be a multi-phased construction and development project for ReNeuron.
The overall plan, said Hunt is to set up “Capacity for late stage clinical development and the market,” explaining that the initial stage will be the construction of development labs.
“The Manufacturing part of the site not will come on stream for at least a couple of years,” Hunt added. The move is expected to be completed within the next two years.
Funding round
The Welsh Government funding will be combined with £25m that ReNeuron – which is listed on London’s AIM – raised through an oversubscribed offering of more than one billion shares the firm recently completed.
At the time Hunt said: “The overall funding package will transform the financial position of our business and its future prospects, and should allow us to take all of our therapeutic programmes through a Phase II proof-of-concept clinical study and to value inflection through commercial deals over the next three years.”
BioPharma-Reporter.com asked Hunt if he thinks that Reneuron is currently a prince among stem cell therapeutics firms and that the move to Wales and the funding will help the firm become a king?
He told us that the statement is "not quite the way I’d put it but the sentiment’s right!"
