EastBridge Investment Group has entered into an agreement to merge with Cellular Biomedicine Group (CBMG), a translational medicine company with serial preclinical and clinical research projects, as well as multiple planned clinical trials in the Greater China market. The combined company will be headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

CBMG shareholders will be issued shares of EastBridge constituting 70% of the combined company, with the EastBridge shareholders retaining the other 30%.  The parties anticipate that CBMG's current chairman and CEO Steve Liu will lead the combined company as chairman and CEO; EastBridge's current chairman and CEO Keith Wong will take up two new roles as chief business development officer and board director of the combined company; and Norm Klein, the current COO and CFO, will also take up two new roles as CFO and board director of the combined company.

The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2013. Both companies have agreed to continue to operate as separate divisions which should allow them to continue to expand current business opportunities with each other's assistance. The combined company plans to apply for listing on the NASDAQ exchange as soon as practicable with the future Nasdaq ticker symbol "CBMG" reserved.

CBMG has developed cellular medicine technologies featuring autologous and allogeneic platforms. CBMG's portfolio of intellectual property consists of in-house developed protocols for regenerative medicine therapies and in-licensed immunotherapy patents and know-how exclusively for Greater China. In collaboration with multiple Chinese AAA hospitals, CBMG maintains a pipeline of clinical trials based on U.S. protocols, including treatments for knee osteoarthritis, liver cancer, skin cancer and spinal muscular atrophy. CBMG operates two biologics GMP facilities in China, which are compliant with U.S. standards.

"We are very excited to be a part of China's $50 billion pharmaceutical market today,” said Steve Liu, chairman and CEO, CBMG. “It is estimated that within five years this market will become the second largest healthcare market in the world. We look forward to working with EastBridge to augment CBMG's growth in these exciting times."