Astellas to acquire Ocata Therapeutics for $379 million and with it, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell therapies

Astellas Pharma will acquire Ocata Therapeutics for $379 million in a deal that will create a presence for Astellas in ophthalmology and cell therapy. Ocata – which changed its name last year from Advanced Cell Technology – focuses on regenerative medicine and cell therapy technologies for eye diseases. The company says its approach, which it calls 'regenerative ophthalmology', identifies cell types that are compromised or lost due to disease, then replaces those missing cells with the same cell type generated from a stem cell source. Ocata has built an IP portfolio and carried out R&D based on pluripotent stem cell platforms – both human embryonic stem cell (hESC) and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) – as well as other cell therapy research programmes. Ocata’s most advanced products are a pair of Phase II retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell therapies, one for Stargardt’s disease, and the other for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Ocata also has an RPE cell therapy for myopic macular degeneration that has advanced into Phase I.