Cell therapy weekly: Immunotherapy nanodevice eliminates multiple IV treatments

Written by RegMedNet

This week in cell therapy: Patent for autologous skin graft, funding for frailty research and ribbon-cutting for new global logistics center.

The news highlights:

Nanodevice will deliver immunotherapy “without the side effects”
MyOwn Skinâ„¢ gains US patent
Cryoport opens new global logistics center in anticipation of surge in advanced therapy clinical trials
US$3.8M grant will fund stem cell aging frailty research

Nanodevice will deliver immunotherapy “without the side effects”

Scientists at Houston Methodist (TX, USA) have developed a novel nanodevice for delivering immunotherapy directly into a tumor. The device delivers a one-time, sustained-release dose, removing the need for multiple IV treatments and reducing side-effects, compared to systemic immunotherapy.

“Our implant releases the drug in a constant manner until the entire amount is completely gone from the reservoir,” commented corresponding author Alessandro Grattoni, chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute.

“Since it can deliver the immunotherapy by itself for weeks to potentially months, we would only need to place the device inside the tumor once and then the drug would be released autonomously for that long period of time.”

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MyOwn Skinâ„¢ gains US patent

An innovative wound-healing therapy has received a US patent. MyOwn Skin, BioLab Sciences (AZ, USA), an allograft, utilizes a small sample of patient tissue to support healing of chronic wounds, burns and diabetic foot ulcers.

“In the United States alone, chronic wounds affect 6.5 million patients,” said Bob Maguire, BioLab Sciences CEO. “Our advanced, tissue-biomanufacturing approach offers a viable, effective solution for skin regeneration and repair. This innovative strategy has shown to accelerate the healing of damaged soft tissue and improve wound-care outcomes.”

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Cryoport opens new global logistics center in anticipation of surge in advanced therapy clinical trials

Cryoport, Inc; (CA, USA) unveiled a new Global Logistics Center as it prepares for an expected increase in regenerative medicine products and clinical trials it supports. The center, located in Livingston (NJ, USA), will support existing customers including Novartis (Switzerland), Celgene (UK) and bluebird bio (MA, USA).

Jerrell Shelton, Chief Executive Officer of Cryoport, commented, “Many of our biopharma clients are predicting significant increases in the number of regenerative therapy clinical trials they expect to undertake…Reliable and efficient management of the biopharma supply chain is critical to advancing the plans of these clients, who are developing and bringing to market the next generation of regenerative therapies, which will surely impact the practice of medicine in profound ways.”

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US$3.8M grant will fund stem cell aging frailty research

Longeveron (FL, USA) has won a US$3.8 million NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to fund further clinical research on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapies for aging frailty. Longeveron sources its therapeutic MSCs from young, healthy donor bone marrow and is currently recruiting for a Phase IIb aging frailty study (NCT03169231), a Phase I trial assessing MSCs for clinically diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease (NCT02600130), and a Phase I/II trial evaluating safety and efficacy of its stem cells for improving flu vaccine immune response in aging frailty patients (NCT02982915).

“There is growing awareness in the geriatric community to diagnose and treat this condition, as it is not an inevitable consequence of aging.  We believe a biologically-driven cell-based therapy could have a major beneficial impact,” Longeveron co-founder and CSO Joshua Hare said in a statement.

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For more weekly cell therapy news, read previous editions of the cell therapy weekly.