Cell Therapy raises record-breaking crowdfunding for stem cell drug

UK biotech company Cell Therapy has raised over £691,000 ($1 million) through crowdfunding on Crowdcube to fund its stem cell medicine Heartcel which regenerates heart muscle to treat heart failure.

The Crowdcube funding was raised from more than 300 investors, and is 277% of the company’s original target. The sum was achieved in just 10 days, generating an imputed valuation of £75 million, making it a UK record for crowdfunding and a world record for biotech crowdfunding.

Heartcel, administered as a simple injection by a cardiac surgeon, successfully completed clinical trials in 2014, and is scheduled to launch commercially in 2016. When scarring of the heart muscle caused by heart attack or heart failure is not treated, the heart deteriorates further, often resulting in death within 10 years and in severe heart failure often within two years. Heartcel encompasses a new stem cell therapy that regenerates the heart – potentially reducing scarring to improve heart function and quality of life and, ultimately, reducing mortality rates.