SCS Japanese affiliate signs cell therapy agreement

Stem Cell Sciences KK (SCS KK), a Japanese affiliate of Stem Cell Sciences (AIM:STEM, SCS), has signed a worldwide exclusive license agreement with the University of Nice to commercialise tissue stem cells that may have therapeutic application in degenerative diseases such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).

The Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis in France will receive an undisclosed upfront fee, annual milestones payments and royalties and SCS KK and the SCS group will obtain exclusive rights to the use of patents and expertise relating to human multipotent adipose-derived stem cells (hMADS).

hMADS cells are tissue stem cells (also known as adult stem cells) obtained from the subcutaneous fat or adipose tissue of young donors and are considered multipotent because they are able to produce many different types of cells including cardiac, vascular, muscle, bone, adipose cells and cartilage in the laboratory.

"It's obtained from young donors because there's more plasticity in the tissue," said SCS director and general manager David Newton.

"The source of cells is surplus fatty tissue taken from tissue that's going to be removed for surgical samples anyway, and have been obtained with full consent," said SCS development manager Megan Munsie. "It removes a lot of the issues regarding the use of embryos, although we still see embryonic stem cells as very important. We really don't know yet which stem cell type will be the best, and we don't believe there'll be one stem cell that fits all."

The cells licensed from the University of Nice were discovered by Dr Christian Dani and Prof Gerard Ailhaud who both work at the Institute of Signaling, Biology of Development and Cancer in France. In research to date, the cells have been transplanted into a mouse model of DMD and were not rejected in the absence of immunosuppressive treatment, highlighting the potential of these cells in cell-based therapies for patients suffering from DMD.

"What they showed most importantly is that they could get proliferation, they could get differentiation, and they could get functional engraftment in terms of the expression of this marker," said Munsie.

The hMADS cells will form the basis of SCS KK's cell therapy programme in degenerative neuromuscular disease with preclinical programs scheduled to commence next year in both muscular dystrophy and arteriosclerosis.

"This is really our first major move into cell therapy," said Newton.

SCS KK is located at the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology which has capabilities ranging from basic research facilities through to an 80 bed clinical trials unit, said Newton.

"The Japanese group are beautifully poised to perform this work because they are part of the Kobe medical precinct where they have researchers in the same complex, as a clinical hospital," said Munsie. "They can go into clinical trials immediately, it was just a great fit for them."