Stem Cell Sciences signs license agreement with Merck

Stem Cell Sciences (SCS) has licensed the use of its novel mouse neural stem cell technology to Merck & Co for research use.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but include a signing fee and milestone payments.

SCS believes neural stem cells have potential broad research applications. This includes their use in target identification and validation studies, as well as in small molecule library screening applications.

The cells and technology will be supplied by SCS from its newly opened facility in Cambridge, UK, where the companies offers a range of services to the bio-pharmaceutical industry through its SC Services business unit. SC Services has the capability for the routine growth of stem cells in the numbers required for high content drug screens and assays.

SC Services also offers conversion of serum-based cell lines to serum free systems, specialist genetic engineering and contract cell production.

SCS was established in Melbourne in 1994, providing products in the burgeoning stem cell research and drug discovery markets, in addition to the targeted development of cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative disease and injury.

It operates as a group of independent operations with laboratories in Scotland, Japan and Australia, each of which is affiliated with an academic centre of excellence, including the Australian Stem Cell Centre in Melbourne.