Evotec and Sanofi Hit the First Milestone for a Diabetes Cell Therapy – Labiotech.eu (blog)

Evotec and Sanofi have achieved preclinical proof-of-concept for a new beta cell therapy for diabetes, triggering a 3M milestone payment from Sanofi.

In 2015, Sanofi and the German CRO Evotecpartnered to jointly develop a beta cell replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes in a deal that could reach more then 300Min potential milestone payments. Today, the first one arrived as Evotec received 3M for itsfirst preclinical success.

The new cell therapy will be based onfunctional beta cells, which are derived from human stem cells. These beta cells could not only serve as abeta cell replacement, but also ahigh-throughput drug screening platformto identify small molecules or biologicsbeneficial for beta cell activity.

Beta cells play a key role in pathogenesis of diabetes, an epidemic disease, which currently affects about 422M people worldwide.They reside within the pancreas and respond to elevated blood levels by secreting the glucose lowering hormone insulin.While in type 1 diabetes, beta cellsare destroyed by the patients own immune system, in type 2 diabetes these cells often become functionally impaired.

Given thepersistent need for new treatment opportunities and the incredible market opportunity, cell therapy for diabetes has become a popular field of research.Just recently, scientists from the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Miami have cured the first patient from diabetes after implantation of a bioengineered mini organ that mimics the native pancreas. The DRI Biohub is currently in Phase I/II studies.

Other companies such as British Islexa are working on reprogramming thepancreatic cells into functional islets for transplantation. Belgian Orgenesis uses the patients own liver cells and aims to convert these into functional insulin producing cells. The company has completed preclinical safety and efficacy studies and is currently planning to move into the clinic.

Eventually cell therapy approaches could obviatethe need to follow a life-long regimen of insulin injections, which often cannot fully prevent the long-term complications of high blood sugar.

However, Evotec and Sanofi are not only facing a crowded market, but the technology is also still in its infancy. In light of the high costs and safety risks of cell therapies, the new approaches will still have to prove that they can hold up to what they are promising.

You can read more about whats going on in the diabetes field in our recent review.

Images viaSyda ProductionsandDesignua / shutterstock.com

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Evotec and Sanofi Hit the First Milestone for a Diabetes Cell Therapy - Labiotech.eu (blog)