ThromboGenics' founder and CEO is Désiré Collen, M.D., Ph.D., a world-renowned expert in cardiovascular disease. Prof. Collen directs the Molecular and Cardiovascular Medicine Group at University of Leuven, Belgium, which provides much of the initial research for ThromboGenics programs. Professor Collen's laboratory was the first to produce clinical supply of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), one of the most effective drugs for thrombolytic therapy of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). This proprietary molecule is licensed to Genentech in return for royalties on worldwide sales.

ThromboGenics research labs are based in Belgium, and its management team is located in Ireland, Belgium and the United States. The Company recently concluded a round of financing with East Hill Biopharmaceutical Partners. Two lead programs are in clinical development and five other pipeline programs are in preclinical development with proof-of-principle demonstrated.

ThromboGenics’ development arm, Thromb-X, NV (www.thromb-x.com) in Belgium, is currently commercializing its proprietary stem cell technologies, including stem cell media and knock-out mice strains, as well as gene targeting services for identification of novel drug targets.

Thromb-X and Chemicon International (USA), a division of Serologicals Corporation, (NASDAQ: SERO), formally announced the signing of an exclusive global agreement to market embryonic stem (ES) cell reagents developed by Thromb-X. The centerpiece of this agreement is the commercialization of the TX-WES culture medium that was specifically developed to enable the derivation of new "non-permissive" strains and to rescue existing ES cell lines. Through this agreement, Chemicon will make available the TX-WES culture medium to the worldwide mouse ES cell community.

Recently, our development of improved ES cell derivation methods, have generated us the possibility to derive ES cells from any mouse strain. These improved ES cell derivation methods even allow the derivation of ES cells from mice strains that were previously considered as non-permissive for ES cell derivation. All derived cell lines have proven germ-line transmission capability at high passage numbers. Among the future research aims of Thromb-X, are the derivation of embryonic stem cells from non-murine species (rabbit, rat, pig), the nuclear transfer technique to produce genetically modified rabbits, and the establishment of pronuclear injection in pigs.