In the Summer 2022, it was announced that Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) - itself an SBIR involved firm in it earlier days - had acquired ViACyte Inc - a key player in the emerging field of regenerative medicine. Having previously had several different names - see below - ViaCyte was originally formed in 1992 as a consequence of a deal involving Baxter Healthcare and Trancel. The effort resulted in the creation a new, privately-held small firm - dba Noecrin - and organized around diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. The underlying therapy addressed bby the firm had been based on the differentiation of stem cells into pancreatic beta cell precursors, with subcutaneous implantation in an encapsulation device. Data in the firm's many publications at the time demonstrated that these cells can produce therapeutically relevant levels of insulin in response to blood glucose, and sustain diabetic animals. Their goal - at the time - was described as a product capable of freeing both Type 1 and Type 2 patients with diabetes from insulin dependence on a long-term basis, while reducing or eliminating hypoglycemic, microvasculature, and weight-related cardiovascular complications. Even a cursory survey of the firm's published scientific literature, tsuggests that the Companys personnel were among the first to describe directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into pancreatic endoderm cells (PEC) and the first to demonstrate the potential of these cells as able to produce insulin in response to increased blood glucose in preclinical models. ViaCyte personnel have subsequently - and more recently - shown that PEC cells further differentiate in vivo, in both preclinical and clinical studies, to the constituent cell types of the human pancreatic islet. Previous names: Cythera Inc~Novocell Inc~Neocrin. In July 2022, it was announced that - with the intent of accelerating its potentially Curative VX-880 Programs in Type 1 Diabetes - Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) - itself an SBIR involved firm in its earlier years - would acquire ViaCyte in a reported $320M cash transaction