GE Healthcare and Geron sign exclusive global agreement for commercialisation of stem cell drug discovery technologies

GE Healthcare, a provider of transformational medical technologies and services, and biopharmaceutical company Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) have entered into a global exclusive license and alliance agreement, of undisclosed financial terms, to develop and commercialise cellular assay products derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), the companies announced on Tuesday.

These products will be used in drug discovery, development and toxicity screening.

The companies said that the programme will use stem cells derived from hESC lines listed on the NIH Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry.

Under the terms of the agreement, GE Healthcare has been granted an exclusive license under Geron's extensive intellectual property portfolio covering the growth and differentiation of hESCs, as well as a sublicense under Geron's rights to the foundational hESC patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Also, GE Healthcare and Geron have established a multi-year alliance programme under which scientists from the two companies will work closely together to develop hESC-based products for drug discovery.

GE Healthcare will fund the R&D programme and will be responsible for manufacturing, sales and distribution of products developed under the agreement.

In addition, under the terms of the agreement, intellectual property rights arising from the alliance programme research will be shared, with GE Healthcare receiving rights for the development of drug discovery technologies, and Geron receiving rights for cell therapy applications.

GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE).

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