Four Biotech Companies that are Helping BC Lead the Battle Against Aging
As population gets older, local biotech companies aim to satisfy demand for youth-bestowing products. “Cell therapy is like personalized medicine. You don’t have to pump yourself full of synthetics anymore. This uses your own cells,” comments Lee Buckler, VP Business & Corp. Development, RepliCel Life Sciences.
“Not content to simply give people more years, B.C. biotech companies are responding to boomers’ desire to age gracefully by staying healthy and active”, states Paul Drohan, CEO of LifeSciences BC. “The idea is to keep people on their bikes and paddle boards longer, to keep them running longer, and looking good while they’re doing it.”
It’s no accident B.C. companies are at the leading edge of anti-aging research. The province has top-notch biotech talent and a good track record for “translation” – taking lab discoveries and turning them into commercial products, Drohan says. The province scored an early victory in the anti-aging war in the late 1980s when Vancouver ophthalmologist Jean Carruthers and Alastair Carruthers, her dermatologist husband, discovered the cosmetic powers of a toxin called Botox in easing lines and wrinkles. B.C. seniors’ appetite for anti-aging products or therapies has only grown.
The province already has the longest average life expectancy in Canada – 84 for women, versus the national average of 83; 80 for men, against the national average of 79.
“We probably have one of the most active elderly populations in the country,” Drohan says.
“They’ve made sure they’ve lived a healthy life and they’re interested in advances in anti-aging and regenerative medicine.”
Vancouver is a pinpoint in the global anti-aging market. U.S.-based firm BCC Research estimates that people over 65 will make up 12 per cent of the world’s market by 2030, up from seven per cent in 2010.
As the planet’s population ages, the global market for anti-aging products is soaring.
BCC expects the worldwide market for anti-aging cosmetic and pharmaceutical products to climb to $345.8 billion US in 2018 from $249.3 billion in 2012.
The related market for regenerative medicine, which aims to restore functional ability to tissues and organs, should explode to $67.6 billion US in 2020 from $16.4 billion in 2013, according to a separate report.
B.C.’s anti-aging companies want to grab a piece of this action.
But the field is fraught with risk as companies spend years demonstrating to regulators their products are safe and effective, Drohan says.
“Some discoveries will turn into huge commercial successes and some, unfortunately, will not prove their end points,” he says.
It can take 10 years for a product to pass clinical trials and be approved by regulators as being market-ready.
BALDNESS TREATMENT IN THE WORKS
RepliCel Life Sciences (TSX.V: RP) wants to turn back the clock on how you look and how you feel.
The Vancouver-based company is exploring the frontiers of regenerative medicine to treat injured tendons, pattern baldness and skin damaged by sun and age.
The world’s scientists have advanced from using chemical compounds to proteins and antibodies in their bid to reverse age-triggered wear and tear, says Lee Buckler, RepliCel’s vice-president of business and corporate development.
“We are the next wave of biotechnology. We use cells as medicines. We call this cell therapy,” Buckler says. “We’ll not only keep people looking younger but acting younger. It’s as much a matter of keeping the guy on the golf course as it is looking good while he’s golfing.”
At the core of RepliCel’s age-busting technology are cells called fibroblasts extracted from a patient’s own hair follicles. Fibroblasts produce Type 1 collagen, a protein that helps the body repair skin and connective tissue.
“It’s like personalized medicine. You don’t have to pump yourself full of synthetics anymore. This uses your own cells.”
Injections of fibroblasts have been proven in the lab to help tendons repair themselves, reduce wrinkles and tone up skin, Buckler says. A different set of cells extracted from follicles is used to regenerate hair.
The company has embarked on an aggressive program of trials on human subjects to prove to health regulators its approaches are safe and effective.
The need for three sets of trials for each therapy means RepliCel’s therapies are several years away from reaching the North American market, Buckler says.
RepliCel scored a coup in 2013 when it formed a partnership with Japanese cosmetic giant Shiseido. That partnership, and Japanese regulatory changes, mean RepliCel’s pattern baldness treatment will likely reach the Japanese market sooner than anywhere else, Buckler says.
Formed in 2010, RepliCel trades on the TSX venture exchange and employs about a dozen people.
To read the full article on the Province’s website click here.