Nuvilex has announced last week that it has acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to a cellulose-based live-cell encapsulation technology for the development of treatments for diabetes.
In order to pull off the acquisition, Nuvilex had to convince investors to part with $1.5m in cash. One wouldn't think this a hard sell given the acquisition could lead to a multi-billion dollar treatment for the company.
And, you'd be right because not only did the company cull together the cash, but it did so at $0.15, a price above Nuvilex's current price per share.
Clearly there is a lot of excitement and energy surrounding this acquisition knowing that it gives the small Silver Spring, Maryland, biotech full rights over any type of diabetes treatment, by any entity using this technology.
Diabetes is a disease that many pharmaceutical and biotech firms want a treatment for in their pipelines.
Many of these firms need to look no further than Nuvilex's technology -- and for all the reasons Nuvilex made the move. The company's executives said their decision to make the acquisition stems, in large part, from the results of 'proof-of-principle' studies in which cells that produce insulin were transplanted into diabetic animals.
The diabetic animals had much higher than normal levels of glucose in their bloodstream and had a difficult time controlling their glucose levels, just as humans with diabetes do.
In animals provided with the encapsulated cells, their blood glucose levels normalized and remained stable for the duration of one six-month study, indicating the encapsulated cells produced insulin in response to their higher than normal blood glucose levels.
The cellulose-based capsules seem to have prevented the encapsulated cells from being attacked by the diabetic animals' immune systems, even in the absence of immunosuppressive drugs. Therefore, the encapsulated cells appear to have acted as an artificial or replacement pancreas.
