at the Warwick laboratory.
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Exten Industries Inc., a San Diego company that develops human liver cells for use in drug testing, announced last week that it had moved its headquarters to Rhode Island. Most of Exten’s presence already is in the Ocean State: It acquired Warwick-based MultiCell Technologies Inc. in September 2001.
“Clearly, the focus of the business is on the work that MultiCell is doing,” said Greg Szabo, president of Exten, who became chief executive officer of MultiCell after the acquisition. “It doesn’t make sense for us to be sitting out in California when all the action is in Rhode Island.”
Exten officials said the strategy behind the move is twofold: All of its R&D is done in Rhode Island, and an East Coast location will allow the company to more easily partner with big drug companies. MultiCell, which has 11 employees, mostly scientists, develops human hepatic (liver) cell lines for use by pharmaceutical companies in preclinical testing of drugs to treat liver disease.
“Streamlining our facilities and operations in the heart of Big Pharma country makes sense financially and logistically,” Exten Chief Executive Officer Jerry Newmin said in a written statement.
Over the past year, for instance, MultiCell has partnered with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. in Groton, Conn., to validate MultiCell’s cell lines for use in drug discovery and toxicology screenings.
That research has gone well, Szabo said, and MultiCell recently announced that it plans to begin selling two liver-cell lines to drug companies under licensing agreements. Szabo said MultiCell is in talks with Pfizer to ink a licensing deal.
When testing drug candidates, drug companies now use either animal liver cells or human cells taken from livers that were rejected as candidates for transplantation. In either case, the cells don’t retain the functionality of normal human liver cells, Szabo said.
“Pharmaceutical companies constantly are looking for good, consistent liver cells,” Szabo said. “Our cell lines have been deemed functional based on our research, including the work with Pfizer. We have a real product now.”
MultiCell announced last week that as many as 50 pharmaceutical companies have “expressed interest” in the company’s cell lines since results from the research with Pfizer became public in October.
The company has shifted its focus toward research collaborations and licensing deals with pharmaceutical companies, Szabo said, because that strategy is the best bet for immediate revenue.
MultiCell’s main focus once was the development of a liver-assistance device, which would help extend the lives of patients with liver disease. That product, however, has been put on the back burner.
“The liver-assistance device is still years and years away, and millions and millions of dollars to get there,” Szabo said.
MultiCell last spring moved into a 10,000-square-foot laboratory at 222 Metro Center Boulevard in Warwick, which doubled its size. But Szabo said he expects MuliCell to move into a larger space, likely in the Providence or Warwick area, sometime next year, as the company gears up to add researchers.
Exten, which is a public company traded on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board with a market capitalization around $7 million, essentially is a holding company for MultiCell and another subsidiary that also was moved to Warwick. Only executive management from Exten will be moved from San Diego to Rhode Island, Szabo said.
MultiCell was founded in 1995 by Dr. Hugo Jauregui, who died in 2000. Dr. Ronald A. Faris, formerly the director of pediatric oncology research at Rhode Island Hospital and a Brown University professor, is MultiCell’s president and chief scientific officer.
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