The all-cash deal announced Monday throws a net around ViaCyte’s stem cell-based treatment for type 1 diabetes, which has been in a neck-and-neck clinical development race with Vertex’s VX-880. But possibly more important than the asset itself, Vertex now has a hold of the intellectual property and science behind the company’s programs.
The company’s plan was to take lab-grown stem cells and turn them into the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed in T1D patients. The first attempt to implant these cells into patients in 2014 failed entirely. But the San Diego biotech regrouped and launched trials for a new candidate in 2017, raising $80 million in the process.
ViaCyte announced Tuesday it’s putting a new therapy in the clinic derived from “off-the-shelf,” gene-edited, immune-evasive stem cells, the first time such a treatment will be tested in humans. The move comes after its clinical trial application was accepted by Canadian regulators, and patient enrollment is expected to start by the end of the year.
ZUG, Switzerland and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and SAN DIEGO, Nov. 16, 2021 n(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP), a nbiopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative ngene-based medicines for serious diseases, and ViaCyte, Inc., a nclinical-stage regenerative medicine company developing novel cell nreplacement therapies to address diseases with significant unmet needs, ntoday announced that Health Canada has approved the companies’ Clinical nTrial Application (CTA) for VCTX210, an allogeneic, gene-edited, nimmune-evasive, stem cell-derived therapy for the treatment of type 1 ndiabetes (T1D). Initiation of patient enrollment is expected by nyear-end.
Months after raising $45 million and losing a chief scientific officer, stem cell-focused biotech ViaCyte has restaffed the position with a cell therapy academic from the University of British Columbia.
ViaCyte shows off first proof-of-concept for diabetes stem cell transplants
ViaCyte shows off first proof-of-concept for diabetes stem cell transplants
At its June meeting, the European Medicine Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended eight new drugs for approval, bringing this year’s count to 50 positive opinions.
More than two and a half years after raising an $80 million series D, ViaCyte has expanded the round with a $45 million financing tranche.
More than two and a half years after raising an $80 million series D, ViaCyte has expanded the round with a $45 million financing tranche.