About 4,000 trials are ongoing in cell-based technology – of which an estimated 1,058 are novel treatments. The cell therapy industry would be transformed if just 100 of these novel treatments successfully completed clinical development and reached the market.
AAVLife SA, a French start-up company that is using an adeno-associated virus vector to deliver a new gene therapy, has raised $12 million in a series A equity placement led by Versant Ventures Management LLC of Menlo Park, California.
A novel gene therapy developed by bluebird bio Inc of Cambridge, Massachusetts has been administered to a patient with beta-thalassemia, a rare blood disorder. The treatment involves an autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The UK government has decided to commit £55 million for the construction of a cell therapy manufacturing centre to support the commercialization of cell therapies, attract inward investment, and boost exports. The investment was announced on 19 March.
Cellectis SA has reached an agreement with privately-owned Laboratoires Servier to develop and commercialise allogeneic T cell therapies for cancer. Under the agreement Servier will make an upfront payment of $10 million, and up to $140 million for each of six new products.
Researchers from the US and Japan have described how somatic cells can be transformed into an embryonic state by the application of external stimuli. The technique, reported in Nature, does not involve an embryo or genetic reprogramming.
An experimental gene therapy has shown promise in a Phase 1/2 study of patients with an inherited cause of progressive blindness called choroideremia. Six patients receiving the treatment have shown improvements in their vision six months after treatment, according to an article in The Lancet.
Shire Plc is to divest Dermagraft, a bio-engineered skin substitute, as part of a strategic review set in motion by the company’s chief executive Flemming Ornskov. The Dermagraft assets are being sold to Organogenesis Inc in exchange for future milestone payments.
The potential of stem cells as future therapies could be linked to a greater understanding of how mitochondria are transferred among cells in the human body leading to the repair of damaged tissue, according to a paper in The EMBO Journal on 15 January.
Further data from a previously-reported Phase 1/2 study of ProSavin, a gene therapy for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease, confirms the treatment’s favourable safety profile. Developed by Oxford BioMedica Plc, ProSavin is delivered in a lentiviral vector.