ViaCyte Inc, a regenerative medicine company, has signed a contract with United States-based W L Gore & Associates Inc, it was reported on Wednesday.

The contract has been signed for the next phase of their ongoing collaboration focused on the development of ViaCyte's Encaptra Cell Delivery System enabled by W L Gore & Associates' advanced material technologies. The Encaptra System has the potential to negate the need for immunosuppression and is an important component of the PEC-Encap product candidate (also known as VC-01) that ViaCyte is developing as a potential transformative therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes. The PEC-Encap program has received funding and research support from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and JDRF.

According to the terms of the contract, W L Gore is to produce and provide a proprietary Gore membrane and the device component for use with ViaCyte's PEC-Encap product candidate. Both firms will continue to collaborate to optimise the device design and implant techniques in support of human clinical trials.