StemCell Therapy

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Orgenesis Inc., (OTCBB: ORGS) (the Company) announced today that pursuant to a licensing agreement dated February 2, 2012 with Tel Hashomer - Medical Research, Infrastructure and Services Ltd. ("Tel Hashomer" or "THM), the Company has an exclusive license to develop and commercialize THM's rights in functional autologous insulin producing cells (AIPC) regeneration technology.

This licensed portfolio is based on the groundbreaking work and two decades of research by the world renowned researcher, Prof. Sarah Ferber conducted at Tel Hashomer.

For the last thirteen years, Prof. Sarah Ferber, Ph.D in Medical Science, the head of the Molecular Endocrinology research unit at theCenter forRegenerative Medicine, Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Tel Hashomer, has been developing this unique technology, which seeks to substitute malfunctioning organs with new functional tissues created from the patient's own existing organs. This technology employs a molecular and cellular approach directed at converting liver cells into functional insulin producing cells as a treatment for diabetes.

Prof. Ferber's work has been published in the most highly regarded scientific journals such as Nature Medicine, JBC, PNAS, Hepatology, Journal of Autoimmunity and more. It is the Companys current intention to bring this technology to the clinical stage.

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) following impaired insulin production by the pancreatic islets' beta cells, which sometimes leads to severe secondary complications such as myocardial infarcts, limb amputations, neuropathies and nephropathies and, in certain circumstances, even death. Currently, the major available treatment modality for an insulin depended diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patient is insulin infusion (injection, pumps or patches). However, the Company believes that these treatments may not prevent, or delay long enough, disease related complications.

A promising therapeutic approach known as pancreatic islet transplantation has been developed as an alternative to insulin injections. Worldwide, there are currently over twenty clinical centers performing pancreatic islet transplantations that are facing formidable obstacles, including a dire shortage of donor insulin producing cells to treat the expanding number of patients with the disease. Furthermore, such transplants require immunosuppressive drugs that may harm the patients and the transplanted cells.

Prof. Ferber states: It is commonly acceptable that the ideal therapy for an IDDM patient is beta cell replacement. I believe that there are three essential steps towards developing a curative treatment:

1) a source of beta cells must be identified;

2) the immune system must be convinced not to attack those cells; and

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Orgenesis Inc. Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Autologous Insulin Producing Cells (AIPC) Regeneration ...

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