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.
Barcelona-based Grifols SA has become a strategic investor in TiGenix NV through the purchase of new shares valued at €12 million. The deal brings Grifols, the world’s third largest producer of plasma-derived products, further into the cell therapy arena.
Sales of ChondroCelect, an autologous cell therapy for the repair of cartilage defects in the knee, increased by 21% to €3.1 million in the first nine months of 2013 from a year earlier, the developer, TiGenix NV reported.
Five-year follow-up data from a pioneering trachea transplantation using tissue-engineered materials has confirmed that the procedure is safe and effective, according to a report in The Lancet. The follow-up report takes into account a stent procedure carried out in the recovery period to address scarring.
Since 2007, legislation known as the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products Regulation (ATMP) has been in place to set regulatory standards for assessing gene, cell and tissue-engineered products. Yet in this time only four ATMPs have been approved for marketing.