UHSM and Intercytex announce development of a strategic partnership to create a business to accelerate the translation of Regenerative Medicine
Regenerative medicine has the potential to play an increasingly vital role in delivering the next generation of healthcare, offering treatments or possible cures for areas of unmet medical need such as Parkinson’s, diabetes, stroke and heart disease. (David Willets July 2011)UHSM (University Hospital South Manchester)* and Intercytex** announce the development of a strategic partnership that would create an innovative service business to accelerate the development of Regenerative Medicine therapies for clients through a system of “Progressive Translation”. Its ultimate goal will be to minimise the costs and risks of developing new Regenerative Medicine therapies and to develop and retain the clinical and commercial knowledge and value created for the wellbeing and economic benefit of the North West and the UK. It will combine Intercytex’s commercial manufacturing capabilities and extensive international experience in developing Regenerative Medicine products with UHSM’s clinical research facilities and outstanding track record and capabilities in patient recruitment for clinical studies. The partnership will provide early and continuing dialogue between sponsors, regulators, clinicians, patients and payers and will utilise current legislative frameworks to enable a product developer to gain early and ongoing real-world health economic data and potentially, reimbursement revenue for breakthrough treatments that can then be used to help offset development costs and identify true returns on investment. Paul Kemp, CEO and CSO of Intercytex said: “Intercytex has considerable commercial experience in developing Regenerative Medicine therapies and knows how costly and time consuming traditional development is. We are extremely excited by this partnership which has the potential to create a paradigm shift in how industry and the NHS might work together in order to bring innovative therapies to the patient in a faster and more economic manner.” Karen James, Chief Executive at UHSM said: “ This is a worthy partnership. UHSM recruited more people to clinical trials last year than any other Trust in the UK and only last month the Chief Medical Officer officially opened our new £2.4million clinical trials centre on site, enabling us to widen our reach to industry and commerce. We have some of the best researchers in the country here in Manchester and as a founding member of MAHSC – a partnership between the NHS and the University of Manchester – we can demonstrate how a lab bench to patient bedside approach can bring about benefit for the people of the region.”For more information contactPaul Kemp: pkemp@intercytex.comNotes to Editors**Intercytex (www.intercytex.com) is a UK biotech company based in Manchester dedicated to the development of Regenerative Medicine products and services. It manufactures cell based products from its IMP licensed GMP manufacturing facility and has designed and run numerous cell therapy clinical studies in the UK, US and Europe both for itself and for third parties. Its lead product Vavelta / ICX-RHY is currently being investigated for the treatment of Epidermolysis Bullosa and Scar Contractures.*UHSM (www.uhsm.nhs.uk) is a major acute teaching hospital trust providing services for adults and children at Wythenshawe Hospital and Withington Community Hospital, and community services. Fields of specialist expertise - include cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, heart and lung transplantation, respiratory conditions, burns and plastics, cancer and breast care services. We are also recognised in the region and nationally for the quality of our teaching, research and development. Our major research programmes focus on cancer, lung disease, wound management and medical education.Regenerative medicine is not one discipline, but covers a number of emerging and sometimes related fields. At its simplest it can be defined as a therapeutic intervention which “replaces or regenerates human cells, tissues or organs, to restore or establish normal function” Mason C, Dunnill P. A brief definition of regenerative medicine. Regen Med, 2008; 3:1-5. Regenerative medicine deploys small molecule drugs, biologics, medical devices and cell-based therapies. However, the term is more colloquially used to mean advanced therapies based on cells, tissue engineering, developmental and stem cell biology, gene therapy, cellular therapeutics and new biomaterials (scaffolds and matrices). Taking Stock of Regenerative Medicine in the UK, Office for Life Sciences BIS July 2011
Original Article: UHSM and Intercytex announce development of a strategic partnership to create a business to accelerate the translation of Regenerative Medicine
