Cell and gene therapies holds tremendous therapeutic promise for patients worldwide and represent a valuable global market opportunity. Still, cell-based therapies present challenges that are fundamentally distinct from traditional small-molecule medicines and are related chiefly to cell retention, engraftment and survival. Minimally invasive cell delivery and improved retention by means of an encapsulation technology is a driver for generating more predictable clinical outcomes with lesser immune rejection in a variety of disease areas such as musculoskeletal, neurological, immunological or metabolic.
Despite of its disruptive breakthrough potential and high market potential, technological challenges across several fronts in translational research and modern medicine has strongly limited the relative success of current approaches. The lack of enabling technologies for cell delivery and retention in areas of considerable need and significant market dimension beckons as a large unmet business opportunity.
Considering its transformational and impactful nature, cell therapy is of strategic importance to Europe. Long-term benefits for European industry and society will result from offering of enabling technologies supporting improved cost effectiveness and performance of cell-based therapies, which are likely to improve patient treatment in areas of high unmet medical need.
The establishment of cell encapsulation platform for cell-based therapies requires an experienced cell therapy expert in-house, with advanced industrial expertise in product development. Stemmatters aims to recruit a specialist supporting expansion of Stemmatters library and supervise development of new candidates for neurological, immunological and metabolic indications. The focus of NOAHs-ARK is to recruit such highly experienced and technically skilled IA for the design, implementation and management of the innovation process envisioned by Stemmatters, namely the development of new generation hydrogels for cell encapsulation.
The project aimed to address the following specific objectives:
Improve its innovation strategy through refinement of market segmentation, implementation of competitive benchmarking and refinement of competitive positioning.
Define therapeutic targets for cell encapsulation technology, by establishing key functional requirements and developing target product profiles for new biomaterial candidates;
Design and implement in vitro studies demonstrating key features and performance of encapsulation technology in target applications;
Design viable and cost-effective manufacturing processes for biomaterials and related cell-based therapies;
Devise by design a product development strategy addressing regulatory and normative requirements.
