Staffan Holmin says about the development, CEO of SmartCella, “We are very pleased to have such a well-known group of institutional and private investors join us as we now accelerate the development of Procella, Smartwise and SvedMed Solutions towards first studies on humans, and to establish GMP manufacturing capacity. ”

“The financing enables the company to move on to the next phase and takes us to an IPO in 2-3 years,” adds Christian Kinch, chairman and founder of SmartCella.

About Procella Therapeutics

Procella Therapeutics was started in 2018 to create the next generation of cell-based therapies for patients who have run out of alternatives. It focuses on stem cell treatments for patients with advanced heart failure.

For patients who have suffered a heart attack, a large number of heart cells die, causing heart failure and significant morbidity and mortality. With cardiac father cells, Procella Therapeutics, together with AstraZeneca, is developing a new way to regenerate the parts of the heart that have been damaged by a heart attack.

In animal experiments, the company’s technology has shown that unique and new heart father cells have the ability to create new muscles in the heart that have been damaged by a heart attack. The company is now preparing for the first human studies.

Stem cell technology was developed at Karolinska Institutet by Kenneth Chien, a prominent professor at the Swedish Research Council and head of the Wallenberg-Karolinska Cardiovascular Initiative.

What does Smartwise offer?

In 1953, Sven-Ivar Seldinger developed a technique for inserting catheters into blood vessels via an INtroducer – this method is used in all hospitals around the world.

Use this as inspiration, Smartvis was founded in 2015 to develop the Extroducer technology invented in the laboratory of Staffan Holmin (MD, Ph.D., CEO of SmartCella). Holmin’s team developed the EXtroducer infusion catheter, a new catheter that uses the same Seldinger principle to leave blood vessels and reach adjacent tissues. Large animal studies of principle studies at Karolinska Institutet in tissues, such as heart, kidney, pancreas and liver, have been performed.

EXtroducer can be integrated with many microcatheters on the shelf and navigate into the microvasculature. A microvasculature is the system of small blood vessels, including capillaries, veins and arterioles, that perfuse the body’s tissues.

SvedMed Solutions

The third business unit, SvedMed Solutions, is working to develop new methods for RNA-based therapies and methods for administration and delivery of such therapies.

Kenneth Chien, co-founder and main owner of SmartCella and also one of the founders of Moderna, says: “The Stockholm region has all the necessary components, including a strong IT sector, to become a world-leading biotechnology cluster.”