Dr. Philip Toleikis reports

SERNOVA ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH CCRM TO PRODUCE SPECIALIZED CELLS FOR THE TREATMENT OF DIABETES

Sernova Corp. has entered into a service agreement with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) to establish, optimize and validate Sernova's licensed technology for creating stem-cell-derived therapeutic cells that produce insulin and are glucose responsive.

"Sernova's Cell Pouch System is a novel, preclinically validated and clinically tested platform for multiple types of therapeutic cells, including human islets," said Dr. Philip Toleikis, president and chief executive officer, Sernova. "Sernova's CCRM partnership with CCRM's expertise in developing production processes for cellular therapies is an important step in Sernova's plan to commercialize an unlimited supply of glucose-responsive, insulin-producing cells for the Cell Pouch System. Sernova continues to seek out and evaluate optimal unlimited cell sources both internally developed and through corporate partnerships involving stem cell derived, and xenogeneic cell sources. Our manufacturing partnership with CCRM will provide the ability for the scale-up production required to ensure successful commercialization of Sernova's cellular therapies for diabetes."

CCRM is a unique not-for-profit group that is solely focused on developing and commercializing cell therapy and regenerative medicine technologies. Sernova is a member of CCRM's industry consortium, a group of nearly 50 companies formed to address bottlenecks in cell therapy and regenerative medicine product pipelines by enabling industry to engage with CCRM's broad network of researchers and institutions. Industry consortium members represent key sectors in regenerative medicine -- therapeutics, devices, reagents and cells as tools -- and tremendous industry experience.

"As a member of CCRM's industry consortium, Sernova is a valued partner in our quest to develop global breakthroughs in regenerative medicine," remarked Michael May, president and CEO of CCRM. "Commercializing a regenerative medicine therapy for diabetes -- the goal for Sernova and CCRM -- has the potential to disrupt and transform current standard of treatment. We are excited about the timing of this partnership, as it is our expectation that projects like this become candidates for the new advanced manufacturing initiative that we announced during a visit by Prime Minister Trudeau in mid-January."

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