Johnson & Johnson and Big Pharma Could Find a Diabetes "Cure" With PharmaCyte Biotech's Type 1 Diabetes Treatment
February 08 2016 - 09:00AM
Marketwired
Johnson & Johnson and Big Pharma Could Find
a Diabetes "Cure" With PharmaCyte Biotech's Type 1 Diabetes
Treatment NEW
YORK, NY-(Marketwired - February 08, 2016)
- Johnson
& Johnson (J&J), like much of the biopharmaceutical
industry worldwide, is aware of the desperate necessity for a Type
1 diabetes treatment. In fact, Diego Miralles, J&J's head of
global innovation, said that his company's recent decision to
partner with a privately held San Diego biotech was to "hedge our
bets to make sure we would win in this space." Johnson &
Johnson's deal with ViaCyte, Inc. is an effort to speed up the
development of ViaCyte's stem cell treatment for Type 1 diabetes.
Winning in the diabetes space, however, might mean that Johnson
& Johnson or another larger company in the biopharmaceutical
industry will need to take a long look at PharmaCyte
Biotech (OTCQB: PMCB), a
small Silver Spring, Maryland firm with its own Type 1 diabetes
treatment. After sitting in on PharmaCyte's second annual
International Diabetes Consortium meeting in Vienna, Austria, it
was clear that PharmaCyte has a treatment that many other
companies, organizations and research institutes have yet to prove
they're capable of producing. It is this treatment that Johnson
& Johnson and other biopharmaceutical companies should be
eyeing very closely. In order to pull off the feat of developing a
successful treatment or "cure" for those who are insulin dependent,
most researchers are looking for three key ingredients. And
PharmaCyte has all three: (1) a cell line capable of producing
insulin that can act as an "artificial pancreas," (2) an
encapsulation technology that can house the cell line inside the
body and keep it protected from the body's immune system, and
finally (3) a team of experts in the diabetes arena that can bring
the treatment to life. PharmaCyte's treatment for type 1 diabetes and
type 2 insulin-dependent diabetes is an encapsulated human cell
line, called the Melligen cell line, which are liver cells that
have been genetically modified to produce, store and release
insulin in response to blood glucose levels in their surroundings.
PharmaCyte will encapsulate the Melligen cells using its signature
live-cell encapsulation technology,
Cell-in-a-Box®. Developing a successful diabetes treatment for
Type 1 diabetics all starts with a cell line that is capable of
producing insulin on demand. Unlike most who have turned to islet
cells or stem cells, PharmaCyte has instead turned to Professor Ann
Simpson, one of the 17 members on PharmaCyte's international
diabetes consortium, and her colleagues at the University of
Technology-Sydney in Australia. Professor Simpson and her team
conducted numerous tests during the various stages of the
development process and studies were carried out to show that
Melligen cells secreted insulin in response to physiological
concentrations of glucose (blood sugar). Furthermore, 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.
Their work was published in a major research
article titled "Reversal of diabetes following transplantation of
an insulin-secreting human liver cell line: Melligen cells" in the
journal Molecular Therapy - Methods & Clinical
Development: http://www.nature.com/articles/mtm201511
The
authors of the article note that, for the Melligen cells to be
effective in treating Type 1 diabetes in humans where the
insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas have been destroyed,
it will be necessary to protect these cells from rejection by the
body's immune system after they have been introduced into the body.
The article points out that one way to protect the Melligen cells
would be to encapsulate the cells in protective "cocoons" prior to
being placed into a diabetic patient. If this is done, the authors
believe that encapsulated Melligen cells may offer a cure for Type
1 diabetes. Enter step 2 of PharmaCyte Biotech's
three-pronged approach, an encapsulation technology capable of
protecting the genetically engineered live cells inside. The
ability to encapsulate a cell line and keep it protected from
immune system attack to treat diabetes has been called the "holy
grail" of cell encapsulation. PharmaCyte's live-cell encapsulation
technology, Cell-in-a-Box®, appears to be the ideal encapsulation
technology for this purpose. In fact, Melligen cells have already
been successfully encapsulated using the
Cell-in-a-Box® process, and the first preclinical studies have
shown that Melligen cells are equally as safe inside the
Cell-in-a-Box® capsules as the encapsulated cells that
PharmaCyte will be using in its upcoming FDA human clinical trials
in advanced pancreatic cancer.
So,
with the Melligen cell line in place, and with
Cell-in-a-Box® set to house the cell line to keep it
protected, the final piece to developing a successful treatment for
Type 1 diabetes is a team of experts who can put it all together,
test it, modify the treatment where necessary, perfect the dosing
in a number of animal models and get the treatment into clinical
trials as quickly as possible.
PharmaCyte's CEO, Kenneth L. Waggoner, has
assembled 17 experts in the field of diabetes from all over the
globe. This group makes up PharmaCyte's International Diabetes
Consortium. They have all come together to work toward one goal -
developing an "artificial pancreas" or a "cure" for insulin
dependent diabetes. All of these experts are working at the same
time in their specific area of expertise rather than waiting for
each experiment to run its course before moving on to the next
group of experts. It is this approach that should expedite
PharmaCyte's path to human clinical trials. PharmaCyte's approach
should provide answers more quickly for those larger
biopharmaceuticals that expect to win the race to the first truly
long-term successful type 1 diabetes
treatment. About Stock Market Media
Group Stock Market Media Group is a Content Development
IR firm offering a platform for corporate stories to unfold in the
media with research reports, corporate videos, CEO interviews and
feature news articles. This article was written based upon publicly
available information. PharmaCyte Biotech has not endorsed this
article, and Stock Market Media Group was not compensated for its
production. Stock Market Media Group may from time to time
include our own opinions about the companies, their business,
markets and opportunities in our articles. Any opinions we may
offer about any of the companies we write about are solely our own,
and are made in reliance upon our rights under the First Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution, and are provided solely for the general
opinionated discussion of our readers. Our opinions should not be
considered to be complete, precise, accurate, or current investment
advice, or construed or interpreted as research. Any investment
decisions you may make concerning any of the securities we write
about are solely your responsibility based on your own due
diligence. Our publications are provided only as an informational
aid, and as a starting point for doing additional independent
research. We encourage you to invest carefully and read the
investor information available at the web site of the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission at:
www.sec.gov,
where you can also find all of PMCB's filings and disclosures. We
also recommend, as a general rule, that before investing in any
securities you consult with a professional financial planner or
advisor, and you should conduct a complete and independent
investigation before investing in any security after prudent
consideration of all pertinent risks.
We
are not a registered broker, dealer, analyst, or adviser. We hold
no investment licenses and may not sell, offer to sell or offer to
buy any security. Our publications about any of the companies we
write about are not a recommendation to buy or sell a
security. For
more information: www.stockmarketmediagroup.com.
Contact: Stock Market Media Group
info@stockmarketmediagroup.com