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Wednesday March 7, 3:48 am Eastern Time Press Release SOURCE: CellFactors plc US Patent Secures Pivotal Intellectual Property Position For CellFactors in Use of Cell Therapy for Brain Repair MARLOW, England, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- CellFactors, a young British bio-pharmaceutical company developing novel cell therapies to repair damaged brains and bones, has been granted a patent covering the genetic immortalisation of human neural cells by the US Patents and Trademarks Office. This secures the company's strong intellectual property particularly in regard to the use of neural cells for treatment of degenerative brain disorders such as Parkinson's Disease, stroke and Alzheimers. Commenting on the news today, Chief Executive Dr. Iain Cubitt said, ``This secures a leading role for CellFactors in neural cell therapy. It is the first of many patents we expect to emerge from our extensive filings, in the USA and Europe which date from the mid 1990s.'' What sets CellFactors apart in this exciting new therapeutic area is the ability to produce and reproduce therapeutically useful quantities of characterised differentiated immortalised human neural cells in culture. In addition the new patent covers a safety device which makes it possible to selectively disable cells after transplantation if desired. Having secured its IP position, CellFactors now intends to open commercial negotiations with interested genomic and drug discovery companies, many of whom already have programmes directed at neural diseases. Their intention is to grant licences to companies working on indications not currently within CellFactors' selected key focus areas. CellFactors will retain manufacturing control over their therapeutic cell production lines. ``With such strong intellectual property we are now ready to seek partners interested in collaborating with us to open up the exciting therapeutic potential now unfolding. We believe cell replacement therapy could give neurologists the breakthrough they need to transform treatment options within a decade,'' said Dr. Cubitt. CellFactors have their UK HQ in Cambridge with research centres at the Universities of Cardiff and Sheffield. You can visit their web site at http://www.cellfactors.com or call up the relevant Patent (Number 6197585) direct from the US Patent Office web site at: http://www.uspto.gov Information in this press release may include forward-looking statements which embrace risk and uncertainties. However all information included in this text is based on information available to our client at the time of issue. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. SOURCE: CellFactors plc http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010307/lnw004.html ******