WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A local company specializing in stem cell research has caught the attention of a major Korean firm.

Rockville-based Neuralstem Inc. announced this week that the CJ CheilJedang Corp. has purchased $2.5 million worth of company stock.

Under the agreement, CJ CheilJedang will have the first opportunity to negotiate for licensing rights for Neuralstem’s stem cell products, once they are approved for market.

“As a development-stage company in the process of going into human trials, we don’t have any significant revenues, so raising money is very important to us,” said John Conron, chief financial officer for Neuralstem.

With this deal, the company has raised a total of $45 million; $9.5 million of that was secured last year.

Neuralstem’s research has focused primarily on producing neural stem cells to treat three major conditions: traumatic spinal cord injuries, ischemic paraplegia and ALS, Conron said.

The company is attempting to go into its first rounds of human clinical trials in the first half of 2008.

Neuralstem has a patent for a technique that can use one batch of stem cells from an individual to produce enough cells to treat as many as a million patients, Conron said.

This is not the first Korean biotech firm to have taken an interest in Maryland, according to Ric Zakour, executive director of MdBio.

Korean biotech companies, which tend to be more focused than U.S. firms on stem cell-related research, have set up a U.S. base through the Maryland Technology Development Center program.

RNL Bio Inc., which does stem cell research, came to the state in 2006.

Gaithersburg biotech firm MaxCyte Inc. has a presence in Korea and will give a presentation next week to local firms about opportunities there, he added.

Montgomery County also hosted Korean business visitors in December, according to Zakour.

melissa.frederick@dcexaminer.com