France's Cellectis in-licenses technology from iPS Academia Japan; posts first half results

French genome engineering specialist Cellectis (Alternext: ALCLS) and iPS Academia Japan have signed two separate non-exclusive agreements granting the Paris-based company worldwide access to the induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells patent portfolio arising from the work of Shinya Yamanaka of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at the University of Kyoto, Japan. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

The agreements allow Cellectis, a spin-out from Sanofi Pasteur, and its affiliates to research, develop and commercialize both research tools (covered by one deal) and human therapeutics or prophylactics (covered by the second accord) derived from iPS cells, in a certain range of differentiated cell lineages. Cellectis is the first company worldwide to be licensed by iPS Academia Japan under this iPS cell patent portfolio for human therapeutics and prophylactics. In the research tool field, this is the first agreement with a French company following agreements with US and German companies.

First deal for regenerative medicine