Sharing MPCs

Sister companies Angioblast Systems Inc. and Mesoblast Ltd. are using the same business model to develop the same mesenchymal precursor cell (MPC) technology, but for different markets: Mesoblast for orthopedic applications, and Angioblast for cardiovascular therapies. The companies will continue to share manufacturing costs, but are now becoming more independent of each other with the start of Phase Ib/IIa trials in their respective fields.

The technology comes out of Australia's Hanson Institute, where researchers in the 1990s discovered surface receptors that are specific to MPCs, which have the ability to transform into bone, cartilage, heart muscle, blood vessels and other mesenchymal lineages. Institute researchers then developed mAbs targeting those markers and used magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) to extract MPCs from bone marrow provided by healthy donors...