ViaCyte, Inc., a privately held regenerative medicine company developing a stem cell-derived islet replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes, announced today that it has completed a private equity financing transaction, providing the Company with $5.4 million through the sale of Series C-1 Preferred Stock, together with warrants to purchase common stock.  The first closing of the Series C-1 financing occurred in July 2013.  This additional investment brings the total invested in the Series C-1 financing to $16.5 million.  A nonprofit corporation and several individuals participated in the offering.

The Company will use the funds to pursue clinical development of its VC-01 product candidate.  ViaCyte also recently announced the submission of an Investigational New Drug application and a Medical Device Master File to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking permission to begin clinical evaluation of the product candidate.  

"We are pleased to complete this financing to further advance the VC-01 product candidate to human clinical trials and provide a potential new alternative to patients with type 1 diabetes," said Paul Laikind, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of ViaCyte. 

ViaCyte's VC-01 product candidate consists of pancreatic progenitor cells, called PEC-01 cells, which are derived from a proprietary human embryonic stem cell line, encapsulated in ViaCyte's Encaptra device.  When implanted under the skin, the PEC-01 cells are designed to mature and further differentiate into insulin-producing beta and other endocrine cells that regulate blood glucose in a manner similar or identical to the islets that normally comprise the endocrine pancreas.