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On 20 January 2006 Biofusion plc ("Biofusion") announced an investment of £420,000 in Axordia Ltd ("Axordia"), one of the UK's leading stem cell research companies and part of the Biofusion portfolio. The investment, which will be provided as convertible loan stock, will be in two tranches with £280,000 invested now and a further £140,000 payable after July 2006. As payment for providing this facility Biofusion will receive an additional 5% of ordinary shares in Axordia which will take its total holding to approximately 36%. Axordia will use the funds to further advance the development of its proprietary endovascular cell lines, which have potential for use in a variety of therapeutic settings including transplantation, remodelling of blood vessels and elsewhere to mitigate the need for immunosuppressant therapies. The company's development of endovascular cells lines is underpinned by the fact that Axordia is one of only a few companies in the world able to derive its own human embryonic stem ("hES") cells. Axordia will also further strengthen its licensing and partnering activities around its drug discovery and stem cell tools offerings for the pharmaceutical industry. David Baynes, CEO of Biofusion, said: "This investment will allow Axordia to take the development of its lead therapeutic programmes to the next level and to grow its commercial operation. The investment also highlights the strength of our business model whereby we are able to provide appropriate funding at crucial stages in our most promising portfolio companies' development and, in this case, increase our holding." Dr V Paul Gerskowitch, CEO of Axordia, said: "Our endovascular cell line programme is unique and backed by strong IPR. The ability of these cells to prevent localised immune system activation and create new blood vessels has promise in the treatment of a range of diseases and we look forward to making further progress. This investment also validates our three-pronged business strategy which we believe will provide the company with near, mid and long term revenues and makes best use of our leading position in human embryonic stem cells."