Robert Lanza the Chief Scientific Officer of Ocata Therapeutics Inc

As per the contract, Astellas subsidiary Laurel Acquisition will acquire the company. The deal already has been approved the boards at both companies.

Astellas, one of the major drug companies in Japan, would make a tender offer worth US$8.50 a share in cash, a 79 percent premium to Ocata’s closing price on Friday last week. 615,554 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged. Ocata’s board has agreed the accord and recommends shareholders to accept the proposal. Shares held by these directors and officers represent, in the aggregate, approximately 1.7% of the share of common stock of Ocata outstanding on this date.

Ocata Therapeutics, Inc.is a clinical stage biotechnology company. The acquisition also represents a step toward achieving Astellas’ Strategic Plan 2015-2017.

With Astellas as a partner, Ocata now has the financial muscle to take on its rivals in this space, including Pfizer which recently announced its own cell therapy programme targeting RPEs in eye disease.

The company says its approach, which it calls “regenerative ophthalmology”, identifies cell types that are compromised or lost due to disease, then replaces those missing cells with the same cell generated from a stem cell source.

Stocks of Ocata Therapeutics, Inc. If tender offer conditions are not satisfied, Astellas may be required to extend the period-but added it is not obligated to do so past May 9, 2016. We are also creating new value by combining internal capabilities and external expertise in the medical/healthcare business. Astellas is on the forefront of healthcare change to turn innovative science into value for patients.

Despite its small size, Ocata, known for most of its existence as Advanced Cell Technology, has often been in the headlines for pushing the frontiers of cloning and embryonic stem cell technology.

Clinical trials are already ongoing in Stargadt’s macular dystrophy (SMD), dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and myopic macular degeneration (MMD), with the stem cell therapies aimed at restoring retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.