Cythera Appoints Senior Management Team, Raises Initial Venture Financing.

Business Editors, Health/Medical Writers

SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 3, 2000

Cythera, Inc., a recently formed company focused in the field of cell therapy and regenerative medicine, today announced the appointments of Michael J. Ross, Ph.D. and Lutz B. Giebel, Ph.D., as chief executive officer and chief operating officer respectively.

The company also announced that it had raised $2 million in an initial round of venture financing from Sanderling, Alta Partners, and Graystone Venture Direct Equity.

Cythera aims to treat human diseases with novel cell-based products developed through tissue engineering. The company's technology enables the expansion and proliferation of functional human cells in the laboratory for transplantation, thereby potentially overcoming limitations of sourcing and employing donated human tissues.

&uot;Cythera has assembled a strong base of technology and intellectual property for the proliferation and expansion of functional human cells and tissues, as well as a network of collaborations with leading academic researchers,&uot; said Dr. Ross. &uot;Our goal now is to advance this technology through the next stages of development and to achieve proof-of-principle for its use as an alternative to the transplantation of donated human tissues.&uot;

&uot;We have formed an exciting new company whose mission is to commercialize cell therapies for human clinical use and treatment based on its ability to grow functional human cells in vitro; we believe that recent scientific advances will now make the promise of cell therapy a reality,&uot; commented Fred Middleton, Cythera's chairman, and Sanderling general partner. &uot;The company is extremely fortunate to have acquired the extensive know-how and intellectual property on growth of attached human cells in culture developed by Desmos over the past four years.&uot;

Cythera's initial focus is on the development of functional islet cell transplants for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes. Using technology licensed in part from privately held Desmos, Inc., the company has shown the ability to proliferate and expand primary islet cells, the pancreatic cells responsible for insulin synthesis, and to reaggregate those cells to restore their functionality and glucose-responsiveness. Cythera is also collaborating with with several companies including TheraCyte, Inc., Islet Technology, Inc., Micro Islet, Inc., and Novocell, Inc. to develop methods of encapsulating the proliferated islets in an immunoprotective barrier, thus enabling their transplantation into diabetic patients whose own islets have been destroyed by their immune system. The company believes this approach could potentially reduce or eliminate the need of diabetic patients for insulin injections.

&uot;Cythera's technology for cell proliferation and aggregation additionally shows promise for the proliferation of human liver cells and may potentially enable the proliferation and transplant of neurological cells as well,&uot; commented Dr. Giebel.

Cythera is headquartered in La Jolla, CA and currently has 12 employees.

Prior to joining Cythera, Michael J. Ross, Ph.D., Cythera's CEO, was from 1996 to 1999 the co-founder, president and chief executive officer of MetaXen LLC, now part of Exelixis Pharmaceutical, Inc.. Prior to that, Dr. Ross was founding president and CEO of Arris Pharmaceutical, now Axys Pharmaceutical. He also served as founder and member of the board of directors of Genencor and Selectide Corp., which was later acquired by Marion-Merrill Dow. From 1978 to 1990, he was employed at Genentech, Inc. in a series of scientific and senior management positions, including serving as vice president of development and later as vice president of medicinal and biomolecular chemistry.

Lutz B. Giebel, Ph.D., COO of Cythera, was previously the co-founder and vice president of research for MetaXen LLC. From 1993-1996, Dr. Giebel was employed by Arris Pharmaceutical, now Axys Pharmaceutical, where he was promoted to the level of senior director of molecular biology.