BTIM: Products for Stem Cell Research

The following are some of the products that are being sold by BioTime for stem cell research.

- Embryome Database: Detailed map of the human and mouse embryome to permit the researchers to chart the cell lineage of human development, the genes expressed in those cell types and antigens present in the cell surface can be used in purification. The database is available in www.embryome.com

- ESpan Cell Growth Media: BioTime/Embryome Sciences will market cell growth media product. These growth media cell types are optimized for growth of primitive embryonic progenitor cell types for laboratory settings as well as commercial sector. BioTime expects that the manufacturers/researchers instead of propogating hES cells in large quantities will instead propogate cells using media optimized for the propogation of embryonic progenitor cells created from hES cells.

- ESpy Cell Lines: ESpy product lines will be developed with Lifeline (ISCO) using ACTCellerate technology licensed from Advance Cell Technology Inc. ESpy cell lines would be derivatives of hES cells that send beacons of light in response to the activation of perticular genes.

- Other New Products: BioTime is also planning to bring other new growth and differentiation factors and kits which will permit researchers to manufacture specific cell types from embryonic stem cells and also market purification tools useful to researchers in the quality control of products for regenerative medicine.

My Take: Company is all set to storm the research market with products which are the best in the breed (based on BioTime's vast experience). They have already identified the tools and critical products and have licensed the same from the actual product vendors. These tools are already being used in the research field and with these agreements the product pricing would be consistent. Standards will be set and once the critical level of acceptance they will be the coke and pepsi of the stem cell research world.

The following statement Sums up BioTime's Strategy:
We are focusing our current efforts in the regenerative medicine field on the development and sale of advanced human stem cell products and technology that can be used by researchers at universities and other institutions, at companies in the bioscience and biopharmaceutical industries, and at other companies that provide research products to companies in those industries. These research-only markets generally can be marketed without regulatory (FDA) approval, and are therefore relatively near-term business opportunities when compared to therapeutic products.

PN: These are my personal views from publicly available info about BioTime