PharmaCyte Biotech Finalizes International Diabetes Consortium to Cure Diabetes
April 20 2015 - 9:30AM
PharmaCyte Biotech, Inc. (OTCQB:PMCB), a clinical stage
biotechnology company focused on developing targeted treatments for
cancer and diabetes using its signature live-cell encapsulation
technology, Cell-in-a-Box®, today announced that the world class
team of scientists, physicians and academics that make up its
international Diabetes Consortium is now complete with the addition
of the final two members, Dr. Thomas Stratmann and Dr. Axel
Kornerup Hansen.
Dr. Stratmann is an Associate Professor at the Department of
Physiology and Immunology in the Faculty of Biology at the
University of Barcelona in Spain. Dr. Stratmann has extensive
experience in using a diabetes mouse model of Type 1 diabetes in
which the disease develops rapidly in contrast to other mouse
models where the disease only develops after several weeks. Through
the use of this model as the Consortium progresses in its animal
preclinical studies with Cell-in-a-Box®-encapsulated Melligen
cells, it is fully expected that the overall development timeline
for PharmaCyte Biotech's diabetes treatment will be shortened
significantly.
Dr. Kornerup Hansen is a Professor in the Department of
Veterinary Disease Biology at the University of Copenhagen in
Denmark. He will perform specially designed preclinical studies to
determine the minimum dose of encapsulated Melligen cells that will
normalize blood glucose levels in diabetic rats as well as pigs,
which are an important model for mimicking the dosing that will be
required for human patients.
PharmaCyte Biotech has the exclusive worldwide rights to use the
Melligen cells to treat diabetes. Melligen cells are genetically
engineered from human liver cells and have been shown to secrete
insulin in response to the concentrations of glucose (blood sugar)
in their environment. When Melligen cells were transplanted into
diabetic mice whose immune systems were essentially not
functioning, the blood glucose levels of the mice became normal.
This observation illustrates that Melligen cells can reverse the
diabetic condition.
PharmaCyte Biotech's CEO, Kenneth L. Waggoner, said of the
16-member Diabetes Consortium, "We are very pleased that our
international Diabetes Consortium is now complete after only a few
months of development. We feel that the scientists, physicians and
academics that make up our Consortium are of the highest caliber
and have already proven that they can work in concert as the
development of our diabetes treatment progresses. We firmly believe
that, although the members within the Consortium are diverse in
terms of their geographic location and expertise, their talents and
knowledge are most complementary. Because of this, PharmaCyte
Biotech's treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes could be in
clinical testing much sooner than would otherwise be the case."
PharmaCyte Biotech's Diabetes Consortium brings together a
global coalition of world class experts from various universities
and institutions in several countries around the world. All members
of the Consortium are committed to developing a treatment for
insulin-dependent diabetes using PharmaCyte Biotech's
Cell-in-a-Box® cellulose-based live-cell encapsulation technology
combined with human non-pancreatic, insulin-producing cells
(Melligen Cells).
Members of the Diabetes Consortium have all agreed to bring
their expertise to the Consortium and work in concert to develop a
treatment for diabetes. In view of the considerable collective
experience and through their collaborative efforts, the timeline
for the development of PharmaCyte Biotech's diabetes treatment will
be significantly shortened. The members of the Consortium and their
expected contributions are:
- Dr. Eva-Maria Brandtner, Head of the
Bioencapsulation Unit at the Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular
Investigation and TreatmentProgram Development for the Consortium.
Dr. Brandtner will coordinate all of the Diabetes Consortium's
research activities and also have a scientific advisory role. Dr.
Brandtner previously served as Chief Scientist at Austrianova where
she conducted studies related to the encapsulation of Melligen
Cells and the early testing of their use in PharmaCyte Biotech's
encapsulation technology as a treatment for diabetes. Dr. Brandtner
serves as PharmaCyte Biotech's Director of Diabetes Program
Development and is a consultant to PharmaCyte Biotech.
- Dr. Matthias Löhr, Professor of
Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Karolinska Institute in
Stockholm, Sweden, will serve a pivotal scientific advisory role
for the Diabetes Consortium. Dr. Löhr is exceedingly familiar with
the Cell-in-a-Box® technology having served as Principal
Investigator for the clinical trials in pancreatic cancer that
employed the technology together with the cancer chemotherapy drug
ifosfamide. In addition to pancreatic cancer, Dr. Löhr has a
specialty in diabetes and its treatment and believes that the
Cell-in-a-Box® technology will provide a platform upon which
effective treatments for both pancreatic cancer and diabetes can be
built. Dr. Löhr is a consultant to PharmaCyte Biotech and the
Chairman of PharmaCyte Biotech's Scientific Advisory Board.
- Prof. Walter H. Günzburg, Dr. Brian
Salmons and Dr. John
Dangerfield of Austrianova will all play significant
scientific advisory roles. Prof. Günzburg is Chief Technical
Officer of Austrianova and serves as PharmaCyte Biotech's Chief
Scientific Officer. He is also Professor of Virology at the
University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (VetMed). Dr. Salmons
is the CEO and President of Austrianova and is a member of the
Scientific Advisory Board of PharmaCyte Biotech. Prof. Günzburg and
Dr. Salmons co-developed the Cell-in-a-Box® technology and thus are
the world's experts in its potential use for the treatment of
diseases. Both are also consultants to PharmaCyte Biotech. Dr.
Dangerfield, the COO of Austrianova, is intimately involved in
dealing with the Cell-in-a-Box® encapsulation process on a daily
basis. All three will be responsible for the preparation of cells
and their encapsulation as required for preclinical studies and
ultimately be involved in human clinical trials as the Diabetes
Consortium develops its diabetes treatment.
- Prof. Ann Simpson and
Dr. Brenton Hamdorf of the University of
Technology in Sydney (UTS), Australia, and their scientific
colleagues at UTS are essential to the success of the efforts of
the Diabetes Consortium. Dr. Simpson, Professor of Biochemistry at
UTS, has spent a significant portion of her professional career in
developing and characterizing the non-pancreatic insulin-producing
Melligen Cells that will be encapsulated using the Cell-in-a-Box®
technology to produce PharmaCyte Biotech's treatment for
insulin-dependent diabetes. Prof. Simpson serves as a consultant to
PharmaCyte Biotech. Dr. Hamdorf serves as UTS' business development
contact and partner for the Diabetes Consortium. Dr. Simpson and
her fellow scientists at UTS will be responsible for performing
laboratory and animal studies on the Melligen Cells both before and
after encapsulation that will be necessary for defining the
parameters under which the Melligen Cells produce insulin.
- Dr. Constantine Konstantoulas and Mag
Helga Petznek (veterinarian) of VetMed will be responsible
for conducting animal studies with encapsulated Melligen Cells that
will test the potential of these cells to produce tumors, define
the biocompatibility of the encapsulated Melligen Cells and test
the ability of the encapsulated cells to produce insulin in a mouse
model in which Type 1 diabetes has been induced by the introduction
of a virus. Dr. Konstantoulas will coordinate the day-to-day
activities of these tests, and Prof. Walter H. Günzburg will
oversee all of the studies done at VetMed. The studies at this
institution are already underway.
- Dr. Thomas Stratmann, Associate Professor at
the Department of Physiology and Immunology in the Faculty of
Biology at the University of Barcelona in Spain, has extensive
experience in using a diabetes mouse model of Type 1 diabetes in
which the disease develops rapidly. Through the use of this model,
as the Diabetes Consortium progresses in its animal preclinical
studies with Cell-in-a-Box®-encapsulated Melligen Cells, it is
fully expected that the overall development timeline for PharmaCyte
Biotech's diabetes treatment will be considerably shortened. In
addition, Dr. Stratmann has two other mouse models of Type 1
diabetes in his laboratory. Through the use of these other animal
models, and in combination with other test systems, the Consortium
should be able to obtain irrefutable data as to the effectiveness
of PharmaCyte Biotech's diabetes treatment.
- Prof. Axel Kornerup Hansen, Professor in the
Department of Veterinary Disease Biology at the University of
Copenhagen in Denmark, will perform preclinical studies to
determine the minimum dose of encapsulated Melligen Cells that will
normalize blood glucose levels in diabetic rats. In addition, Dr.
Hansen will perform the same tests on pigs that have been made
diabetic by injecting them with a drug known as streptozotocin.
This drug destroys the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin
and thus results in diabetes.
- Dr. Andreas Blutke, Dr. Rüdiger Wanke, and
Dr. Eckhard Wolf, of the Laboratory of Functional
Genome Analysis, Gene Center, at the Ludwig-Maximillians University
in Munich, Germany, have developed unique transgenic mouse and pig
models in which the mice and pigs exhibit diabetes from birth
without the use of diabetes-inducing drugs. When these models are
ready, they will be used by the Diabetes Consortium to test the
effectives of PharmaCyte Biotech's diabetes treatment and to study
the effectiveness of the treatment in minimizing the kidney and
pancreas alterations that occur as diabetes progresses.
- Kenneth L. Waggoner, JD and Dr. Gerald
W. Crabtree, the CEO and the COO, respectively, of
PharmaCyte Biotech will be responsible for providing overall
coordination and management of the Diabetes Consortium as well as
and funding for the activities within the Consortium. PharmaCyte
Biotech will also provide scientific direction and support when it
is required.
About PharmaCyte Biotech
PharmaCyte Biotech is a clinical stage biotechnology company
focused on developing and preparing to commercialize treatments for
cancer and diabetes based upon a proprietary cellulose-based live
cell encapsulation technology known as Cell-in-a-Box®. This unique
and patented technology will be used as a platform upon which
treatments for several types of cancer, including advanced,
inoperable pancreatic cancer, and diabetes are being built.
PharmaCyte Biotech's treatment for pancreatic cancer involves low
doses of the well-known anticancer prodrug ifosfamide, together
with encapsulated live cells, which convert ifosfamide into its
active or "cancer-killing" form. These capsules are placed as close
to the cancerous tumor as possible to enable the delivery of the
highest levels of the cancer-killing drug at the source of the
cancer. This "targeted chemotherapy" has proven remarkably
effective and safe in past clinical trials. PharmaCyte Biotech is
also working towards improving the quality of life for patients
with advanced pancreatic cancer and on treatments for other types
of solid cancerous tumors. In addition, PharmaCyte Biotech is
developing treatments for cancer based upon chemical constituents
of the Cannabis plant, known as cannabinoids. In doing so,
PharmaCyte Biotech is examining ways to exploit the benefits of
Cell-in-a-Box® technology in optimizing the anticancer
effectiveness of cannabinoids, while minimizing or outright
eliminating the debilitating side effects usually associated with
cancer treatments. This provides PharmaCyte Biotech the rare
opportunity to develop "green" approaches to fighting deadly
diseases, such as cancer of the brain, breast and pancreas, which
affect hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide every
year.
Safe Harbor
This press release may contain forward-looking statements
regarding PharmaCyte Biotech and its future events and results that
involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The words "anticipate,"
"believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan" and similar
expressions, as they relate to PharmaCyte Biotech or its
management, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
Important factors, many of which are beyond the control of
PharmaCyte Biotech, could cause actual results to differ materially
from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. They
include PharmaCyte's ability to continue as a going concern, delays
or unsuccessful results in preclinical and clinical trials, flaws
or defects regarding its product candidates, changes in relevant
legislation or regulatory requirements, uncertainty of protection
of PharmaCyte Biotech's intellectual property and PharmaCyte
Biotech's continued ability to raise capital. PharmaCyte Biotech
does not assume any obligation to update any of these
forward-looking statements.
More information about PharmaCyte Biotech can be found at
www.PharmaCyteBiotech.com. It can also be obtained by contacting
Investor Relations.
CONTACT: Investor Relations Contacts:
Jamien Jones
Blueprint Life Science Group
Telephone: 415.375.3340 Ext. 103
jjones@bplifescience.com