R&D grant to accelerate Parkinson's treatment

Living Cell Technologies (ASX:LCT) will receive a Callaghan Innovation R&D Growth Grant totalling an estimated NZ$2 million, which will reimburse the regenerative medicine company for 20% of eligible New Zealand research and development expenditure over the next three years.

LCT’s lead product, NTCELL, is an alginate-coated capsule containing clusters of neonatal porcine choroid plexus cells. After transplantation, the product produces factors to promote new central nervous system growth and repair disease-induced nerve degeneration.

In its grant application, LCT committed to the following research and development objectives:

1. Conduct a confirmatory clinical trial to support its application for provisional consent from Medsafe to market NTCELL in New Zealand.
2. The transfer of NTCELL production to an automated process so that commercial sales demand can be met.
3. Additional research into the mechanism of action of NTCELL, and research into further indications for NTCELL and other cell therapies to identify other potential pipeline products for the future.

LCT CEO Dr Ken Taylor said the R&D Growth Grant will accelerate the development of NTCELL as a regenerative treatment for Parkinson’s disease. The product was recently the subject of a Phase I/IIa clinical trial, which met the primary endpoint of safety and showed clinical efficacy improvements. A larger Phase IIb trial will evaluate its potential as a disease-modifying treatment for patients with Parkinson’s disease.

“We have finalised, and submitted for approval, the protocol for the Phase IIb study which will define the most effective dose of NTCELL for Parkinson’s disease,” Dr Taylor said.

“This approval will accelerate the development of an effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease.”

Living Cell Technologies (ASX:LCT) shares were trading unchanged at $0.038 as of around 1.30 pm on Monday.