Eyestem has a visionary approach to make cell therapy affordable in India – Economic Times

A medical consultation that turned into an idea exchange chat and led to the launch of a company that, in a nutshell, is how Eyestem came into existence.

This cell therapy company was founded by a group of doctors and management consultants whose vision was to create a cell therapy platform to treat incurable diseases and make these technologies accessible to everyone.

Talking about its inception, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jogin Desai says, I met Rajani Battu, a senior ophthalmologist, in 2014 for a medical consultation. Both of us saw cell and gene therapy as the next frontier of medical innovation and the eye being the prime target for these therapies. We discussed that the approach taken by the western companies will result in therapies that will cost more than $400,000 per injection. We felt this was the right time to disrupt the field.

Cell and gene therapy is going to lead to a paradigm shift in healthcare. Diseases that were deemed incurable will start getting treatment because of this, say experts. Indian patients can benefit if a base is created here for these new platforms. Currently, such treatments are not sustainable due to the astronomical costs a therapy for spinal muscular atrophy can cost Rs 16 crore per patient. Eyestem intends to change that by keeping the cost low.

Big challengesEyestem treats incurable diseases by replacing the cells that are lost to conditions such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of incurable blindness in the industrialised world. About 170 million people suffer from this disease; 40 million in India. It presents as two variants: wet and dry. Wet AMD is treatable and the global market value for this is about $8 billion.

Dry AMDs incidence is 9 times that of wet AMD and is incurable. Eyestems lab grown suspension of RPE cells helps in treating this condition. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of rare, genetic disorders that affects children and causes complete vision loss by the age of 20. Some 5 million kids are estimated to suffer from this disease; 1.5 million in India. Eyecytes lab grown suspension of photoreceptor progenitor cells can be used to rescue the vision of these children. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a serious chronic disease that makes breathing difficult and leads to cardiovascular complications. Once diagnosed, patients have a median survival period of 3-5 years. It is estimated that 5-6 million suffer from this globally. The companys lab grown suspension of cells can lead to improvement of the condition.

The company treats incurable diseases by replacing the cells that are lost to conditions such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. (Pic: Team Eyestem)

A question of affordabilityThe company claims to be capital efficient and aims to get each product from concept to human trials in under $4 million. Most pharma companies spend 10 times this number to reach this stage, claims Desai.

On how soon the treatments can be commercialised, he says, Our treatment of dry AMD will go through first human trials by Q4 2022 and each new product to treat incurable diseases will be deployed 12 months after that. All of these are unmet needs and hence go through a fast-track clinical trial process. We expect to begin commercial availability of our flagship product by the end of 2024.

One of the experts in stem cells and regenerative medicine who is on the advisory board of the startup is Mahendra Rao, former Director of NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine (Washington, DC) and the CEO of Implant Therapeutics. He says he was impressed with the co-founders approach to work. They have ensured early engagement with DGCI and the FDA for their input and added experts to the board to ensure that their work meets international standards. They coordinated with LV Prasad Eye Hospital to help design a trial that is best suited for Indian patients."

Matter of fundingThe company says that it has been selective in raising funds as its purpose is not to raise money with higher valuations but to help patients. With its latest round of funding, it aims to upgrade its manufacturing process and deploy artificial intelligence to increase the predictability of its protocols. The company underscores they prefer to not talk about the money raised or valuation as their focus is not on such irrelevant metrics.

The angel round was led by myself and my team of senior ex-Quintiles executives from India, South Africa and Zurich. Endiya Partners and Kotak Private Equity joined in a subsequent pre-series A round. We are currently raising our series A and we are halfway there. 30% has been committed by current shareholders and we have soft commitment from a global venture fund for the other 20%. We anticipate closing this round in the next 8-12 weeks, adds Desai.

Nitin Deshmukh, senior advisor at Kotak Investment Advisors, says, Eyestem has taken a leadership position in developing allogeneic cell therapy products for ophthalmic conditions. We are happy with initial results seen in the product for treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a retinal degenerative disease.

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Eyestem has a visionary approach to make cell therapy affordable in India - Economic Times