Global 2017 Cell Therapy Technologies, Markets and Companies … – Yahoo Finance

Dublin, April 06, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of Jain PharmaBiotech's new report "Cell Therapy - Technologies, Markets and Companies" to their offering.

This report describes and evaluates cell therapy technologies and methods, which have already started to play an important role in the practice of medicine. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is replacing the old fashioned bone marrow transplants. Role of cells in drug discovery is also described. Cell therapy is bound to become a part of medical practice.

Stem cells are discussed in detail in one chapter. Some light is thrown on the current controversy of embryonic sources of stem cells and comparison with adult sources. Other sources of stem cells such as the placenta, cord blood and fat removed by liposuction are also discussed. Stem cells can also be genetically modified prior to transplantation.

Cell therapy technologies overlap with those of gene therapy, cancer vaccines, drug delivery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Pharmaceutical applications of stem cells including those in drug discovery are also described. Various types of cells used, methods of preparation and culture, encapsulation and genetic engineering of cells are discussed. Sources of cells, both human and animal (xenotransplantation) are discussed. Methods of delivery of cell therapy range from injections to surgical implantation using special devices.

The cell-based markets was analyzed for 2016, and projected to 2026.The markets are analyzed according to therapeutic categories, technologies and geographical areas. The largest expansion will be in diseases of the central nervous system, cancer and cardiovascular disorders. Skin and soft tissue repair as well as diabetes mellitus will be other major markets.

The number of companies involved in cell therapy has increased remarkably during the past few years. More than 500 companies have been identified to be involved in cell therapy and 305 of these are profiled in part II of the report along with tabulation of 291 alliances. Of these companies, 170 are involved in stem cells.

Profiles of 72 academic institutions in the US involved in cell therapy are also included in part II along with their commercial collaborations. The text is supplemented with 64 Tables and 22 Figures. The bibliography contains 1,200 selected references, which are cited in the text.

Key Topics Covered:

Part I: Technologies, Ethics & Regulations

Executive Summary

1. Introduction to Cell Therapy

2. Cell Therapy Technologies

3. Stem Cells

4. Clinical Applications of Cell Therapy

5. Cell Therapy for Cardiovascular Disorders

6. Cell Therapy for Cancer

7. Cell Therapy for Neurological Disorders

8. Ethical, Legal and Political Aspects of Cell therapy

9. Safety and Regulatory Aspects of Cell Therapy

Part II: Markets, Companies & Academic Institutions

10. Markets and Future Prospects for Cell Therapy

11. Companies Involved in Cell Therapy

12. Academic Institutions

13. References

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/s5g673/cell_therapy

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Global 2017 Cell Therapy Technologies, Markets and Companies ... - Yahoo Finance

Making CAR T-Cell Therapy Safer – The Scientist

Making CAR T-Cell Therapy Safer The Scientist JCAR015 is not the first CAR T-cell therapy to have been associated with patient deaths. In fact, even those trials considered a success sometimes have troubling safety profiles. For example, Novartis's lead candidate, the CD19-targeting CLT019, ...

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Making CAR T-Cell Therapy Safer - The Scientist

CAR T-Cell Therapy Yields High Response Rate in Aggressive … – Cancer Network

Patients with advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma have limited options after treatment failure with chemotherapy or transplant.

In this video, Frederick Locke, MD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, discusses results of the ZUMA-1 trial, which tested chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; KTE-C19) in this patient population. The treatment is given as a single infusion after conditioning chemotherapy with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide.

The multicenter clinical trial enrolled 111 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, and transformed follicular lymphoma. Nearly all (99%) were able to have axi-cel manufactured from their cells. A total of 101 patients (91%) received the CAR T-cell therapy (10 patients were unable to receive therapy after cell collection, most due to disease progression).

Locke highlights the overall and complete response rates in the trial, compares the results to previous data involving other treatments in a similar patient population, and reviews toxicities associated with CAR T-cell therapy.

The results of ZUMA-1, which showed a 6-month overall survival of 80% (compared to 55% for historical controls), were presented at the 2017 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting, held April 15 in Washington, DC.

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CAR T-Cell Therapy Yields High Response Rate in Aggressive ... - Cancer Network

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)

T-cell Therapy for Ovarian Cancer Shows Promise | Technology … – Technology Networks

In this photo, mouse ovarian cancer cells light up with different proteins targeted by the engineered T cells. Image by Kristin Anderson and Ingunn Stromnes / Greenberg Lab

For some patients, certain forms of immunotherapy are showing promise in treating previously difficult-to-treat cancers. In the case of T-cell therapies, though, most of the early experimental successes have been seen in blood cancers. Solid tumors, like breast, lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancers, pose a tougher nut to crack for this new wave of cancer therapies.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center immunotherapy researchers Drs. Kristin Anderson and Phil Greenberg and their colleagues are working on ways to tweak their teams early successes with T-cell therapy for leukemia to apply to solid tumors. In a presentation Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in Washington, D.C., Anderson described her preclinical results working toward T-cell therapy for ovarian tumors and the hurdles any clinical version of this therapy will need to overcome. To date, the therapies Anderson and her colleagues are developing have only been tested in mice and in mouse and human cells in the lab.

Developing T-cell therapy for solid tumors is more challenging than for leukemias and lymphomas, Anderson said, but many patients with these cancers are in desperate need of new treatment options. The top five cancer killers in the U.S. are all solid tumors, according to the American Cancer Society. Although ovarian cancer is less common in the U.S. than other solid cancers, its highly deadly it tends to be diagnosed at late stages, in part because it often doesnt cause obvious symptoms, and it has a high relapse rate, Anderson said.

All of these are huge problems, she said. An estimated 22,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed per year with the disease, according to the ACS, and approximately 14,000 die of the cancer.

The challenges of T-cell therapy for cancers like ovarian cancer include the simple issue of access patients with leukemia or lymphoma can receive an infusion of engineered T cells directly into their bloodstream, but it can be more difficult to tweak the cells to traffic to a tumor tucked away in the body. Another major roadblock to adopting T-cell therapy to solid tumors is whats known as the tumor microenvironment, the local milieu of non-cancerous cells and molecules in and around the tumor.

Tumor microenvironment issues come hand-in-hand with working on solid tumors, said Anderson, who is one of 10 recipients of this years AACR Women in Cancer Research Scholar Awards, a travel award given to female early-career cancer researchers presenting at the meeting.

She and her colleagues have identified proteins overproduced by ovarian cancer cells, known as WT1 and mesothelin, and have found that T cells engineered to specifically recognize these proteins can kill both human and mouse ovarian cancer cells in the lab. Theyve also found that the T cells significantly extend survival in a mouse model of the cancer, but theres a ways to go before this therapy is ready for clinical trials in humans, Anderson said.

In her presentation, Anderson outlined three types of tumor microenvironment roadblocks to an effective ovarian cancer T-cell therapy and how the research team is working to overcome each. They are:

Immunosuppressive cells and proteins in the microenvironment that can signal the engineered T cells to shut down or ignore tumors. Existing checkpoint inhibitor drugs could circumvent this problem, Anderson said, and the Fred Hutch team is also exploring engineering the therapeutic T cells to block those immunosuppressive signals.

A death signal produced by both ovarian tumor cells and nearby blood vessels on their surfaces. This molecular signal causes T cells heading to the tumor from the bloodstream to commit suicide before they can fight the cancer. Dr. Shannon Oda in the Greenberg lab is working on a new type of fusion protein the engineered T cells will carry that will rewire their internal circuitry to instead boost their anti-tumor activity in response to the death signal.

The tumors low-sugar environment. Fast-growing ovarian cancer cells churn through the glucose in their environment the same energy source engineered T cells need to do their work. Researchers in the Greenberg lab are working to re-engineer the therapeutic T cells to process other sources of energy.

Although her current work focuses on ovarian cancer, a particularly difficult-to-treat solid tumor, Anderson hopes the work will shed light on new therapeutic avenues for other solid tumors as well.

If we can solve some of the issues that really plague us with these hard ones, then we can more readily apply [the solutions] to cancers that have fewer of these hurdles, she said.

The researchers are hoping to launch a clinical trial of the engineered T cells for patients with ovarian cancer in the next few years, Anderson said.

Paying it forward

For Anderson, the work is not just academic. Five years ago, while she was completing her doctorate research, Anderson was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer when she was just 28. After her diagnosis, she learned she carried a mutation in the breast cancerlinked gene BRCA1, a mutation which also increases her risk for ovarian cancer.

An immunologist by training, Andersons own experience with cancer spurred her to look for research opportunities where she could one day have a direct impact on other cancer patients. She wasnt particularly looking to study breast or ovarian cancer, she said, but she was very interested in the burgeoning field of immunotherapy. It seemed a prime research area where she could use her background to make a difference.

When Anderson met with Greenberg, whos long been a leader in the field of T-cell therapy, to discuss research options for her postdoctoral fellowship, he proposed the ovarian cancer project to her. Anderson jumped at the chance.

Someone did a lot of research to come up with the drug that got rid of my cancer. Part of the reason that I wanted to go into cancer therapy was so I could pay it forward and do that for someone else, she said. It just so happened coincidentally to be [a cancer] that is close to my heart.

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T-cell Therapy for Ovarian Cancer Shows Promise | Technology ... - Technology Networks