PharmaCyte Biotech, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing targeted treatments for cancer and diabetes using its signature live-cell encapsulation technology, Cell-in-a-Box, has signed a research services agreement and a consulting contract with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia. Both of these contracts concern the development of PharmaCyte Biotech’s treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes that is comprised of proprietary human non-pancreatic insulin-producing cells (Melligen cells) that are to be encapsulated using its cellulose-based live cell encapsulation technology known as Cell-in-a-Box.

The research services agreement is designed to provide funding to UTS that will permit Prof. Ann Simpson, an authority on the Melligen cells, and her colleagues at UTS to conduct pivotal studies with Melligen cells in order to help fully characterize the parameters by which these cells produce insulin “on demand” when they are encapsulated using the Cell-in-a-Box technology. The consulting contract will allow Prof. Simpson to devote a sufficient amount of her time to working with PharmaCyte Biotech and its international Diabetes Consortium as it pursues the development of its diabetes treatment for insulin dependent diabetes.

“The research services agreement and Prof. Simpson’s consulting contract are extremely important and very necessary as PharmaCyte Biotech pursues its goal of developing a treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes,” said Kenneth Waggoner, PharmaCyte Biotech’s chief executive officer. “We are particularly pleased that Prof. Simpson has agreed to join us as a consultant because, not only was she a founding member of our Diabetes Consortium, her expertise in dealing with the Melligen cells will undoubtedly continue to be indispensable as we move forward in our efforts to find an effective treatment for all those who are in need of insulin to live a normal life.”