TiGenix closes € 16 million Series B financing round and expands shareholder base worldwide 

Leuven (Belgium) – January 5, 2006 – TiGenix today announced the successful closing of a € 16 million Series B financing round, led by ING Corporate Finance. In addition to the commitment of all existing investors, TiGenix welcomes new investors including HSS Ventures (New York), ITX Corporation (Tokyo and London), Banque Générale de Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Baekeland Fonds 2, SRIW and Partners@Venture (Belgium). 

The proceeds of the placement will be used to launch TiGenix’ lead-product, ChondroCelect, in the United States and Europe, and to accelerate the development of its next generation and pipeline products. The Series B financing round brings the total capital raised by TiGenix to date to € 29 million.

“We are clearly very happy with this result” says CEO Gil Beyen. ”We are pleased to have the confidence and the support of our existing investors, and we welcome the new investors who participated in this round. The diversity of the new investors we were able to attract, including institutions from the United States and Japan, underlines the appreciation and recognition of our strategy in both the medical and investor community. This financing round enables us to aggressively advance our ChondroCelect product worldwide and bring the Company to the next level of growth”.  

“With this successful funding round and the progress being made in its clinical trials, TiGenix continues to demonstrate its ability to execute its ambitious plans and to carve out a leading position in its field”, says Alain Parthoens, Investment Director of ING Belgium Private Equity.

TiGenix is involved in the application of regenerative medicine for the development of innovative local treatments for damaged and osteoarthritic joints. The company was founded in 2000 and has since then managed to establish itself as a leading player in the field of joint repair. Its lead product for cartilage repair, ChondroCelect, is in late stage pivotal Phase III clinical development.  

For further information, please contact: 

Gil Beyen                                                          Luc Dochez      

Chief Executive Officer                                        Business Development

+32 16 396060                                                   +32 16 396060

gil.beyen@tigenix.com                                       luc.dochez@tigenix.com 

About TiGenix

TiGenix (www.tigenix.com) is a venture backed, private biomedical company based in Belgium. It was founded in 2000 as a spin-off of the Universities of Leuven and Ghent. The company operates at the cutting edge of regenerative medicine and focuses on the development of innovative local treatments for damaged and osteoarthritic joints.

TiGenix’ mission is to develop a comprehensive solution for osteoarthritis (OA) by combining cellular therapies with targeted therapeutics. Based on strong scientific evidence that injury to articular cartilage is an important cause of OA, TiGenix’ initial focus has been on the treatment of symptomatic cartilage defects in weight-bearing joints. TiGenix’ proprietary adult stem cell technology prepares the route to an off the shelf product for cartilage repair and to the treatment of other musculoskeletal tissues. In addition to its cell-based product range, the Company is also leveraging its know-how in cartilage cell biology to investigate novel OA associated targets and to develop traditional, small molecule and biologic products for local delivery in the diseased joints.

ChondroCelect, the company’s lead product, is an innovative cell-based therapy focusing on durable repair of cartilage defects of the knee. The product is used in combination with Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI), a surgical procedure to treat cartilage defects by using patients’ own cells. Cartilage defects of the knee are very common and the spontaneous healing capacity of cartilage is limited. Patients having had a traumatic cartilage injury at a younger age are at risk of developing osteoarthritis OA later in life.  By focusing on the regeneration of stable hyaline-like cartilage, ChondroCelect aims at realizing durable repair of cartilage defects and postponing the progression towards OA.  ChondroCelect is in late stage pivotal Phase III clinical development. The results of this trial are due by Q2 2006.   

For additional information, please visit our new website: www.tigenix.com