A company with the first FDA-approved personalized cell therapy for reducing wrinkles has raised $45 million in a private stock sale. The financing was sought to improve manufacturing capacity for the therapy and advance other uses for it such as treating burn victims, according to a company statement.
Fibrocell Science’s aesthetic therapeutic, Laviv, secured got the green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year. Laviv uses individuals’ fibroblast cells to reduce nasolabial fold wrinkles, creases on the face that start from the outer corners of the nose and go down to the corners of the mouth. It also has an acne therapy in phase 3 clinical trials and a burn scar therapy in phase 2 trials.
The Exton, Pennsylvania biopharmaceutical company’s personalized cell development platform technology isolates, purifies and multiplies a patient’s fibroblast cells, connective skin cells that make collagen.
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Additionally, Fibrocell agreed to a strategic collaboration with biotechnology firm Intrexon which can provide genome engineering, cell processing, and cell system engineering, among other services, to help advance Fibrocell’s personalized cell therapy program.
David Pernock, Fibrocell CEO, said the collaboration agreement with Intrexon would give the company access to cutting edge technology to advance its cell-based therapies, according to the statement. The agreement follows a research project with UCLA in which the educational institution used Fibrocell’s technology to identify rare adult stem cell-like sub-populations in adult human skin — cells associated with skin regeneration after injuries and mesenchymal adult stem cells. When the findings were announced earlier this year, Pernock said the findings could set the stage for the company’s growth, helping it initiate collaborations and partnerships with other companies.
As part of the financing deal, Third Security LLC will get two seats on Fibrocell’s board.
Personalized stem cell development fits into the broader category of personalized medicine, regarded as the future of medicine in which therapies will be better targeted to individuals and more effective.
