The market for treatment of diabetes is massive, as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that are 29 million people living with diabetes in the United States, which represents approximately 9.3% of the U.S. population.
Worldwide, 370 million people are afflicted by the disease.
If successful, a cell therapy approach to the treatment of diabetes would be revolutionary. To learn more about the announcement, see the full press release from Sernova below, printed with permission from Janet Vasquez, press contact for Sernova.
SERNOVA SECURES COMMERCIAL RIGHTS TO PROPRIETARY STEM CELL DERIVED TECHNOLOGIES
UHN (University Health Network) Agreement Transitions Sernova to an Integrated Therapeutic Cell Regenerative Medicine Company
London, Ontario; Sernova Corp; September 10, 2015; 6:00 a.m. EDT — Sernova Corp. (TSX-V: SVA) (FSE: PSH), a clinical stage company developing medical technologies for the long-term treatment of chronic metabolic diseases including diabetes, blood disorders such as haemophilia and other diseases, announced today it has signed a license agreement with the University Health Network (UHN) of Toronto, Canada to gain exclusive worldwide rights to certain patent-pending technologies developed by distinguished UHN researchers, Dr. Cristina Nostro and Dr. Gordon Keller. These technologies relate to the development of stem cells into glucose-responsive therapeutic cells for the treatment of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes.
”This agreement provides us with a proprietary source of stem cell derived glucose responsive therapeutic cells. When placed within Sernova’s prevascularized Cell Pouch(TM), and protected locally from immune system attack, we believe that Sernova has the potential to provide a significant break-through in the quality of treatment for the millions of people suffering from insulin-dependent diabetes, said Dr. Philip Toleikis, Sernova’s President and CEO”. “Such individuals could essentially be liberated from their current onerous daily regime of multiple blood glucose testing and insulin administration delivered through injections or electronic means which is expected to materially improve their quality of life, prevent or reduce abnormal glucose complications, and reduce short term and longer term health care costs.”
The current standard of care for islet transplantation is limited to diabetic patients with severe hypoglycemia unawareness due to both a lack of cadaveric donor islets and a requirement for life-long use of toxic anti-rejection drugs.
“We believe that a virtually unlimited supply of glucose responsive therapeutic cells could be generated from ethically derived stem cells which, if shown to have positive safety and efficacy in clinical trials, could be used to treat millions of patients,” commented Delfina Siroen, Sernova’s head of Research and Development. “The addition of the UHN stem cell technologies moves Sernova one step further toward being able to provide a full solution (device, unlimited cell supply and local immune protection) for cell therapy applications.”
About Diabetes
The worldwide incidence of diabetes is approximately 370 million. Sernova’s potential addressable market which includes Type-1 patients and those Type-2 patients requiring insulin is over 30 million people. Although there is currently no cure for diabetes, blood glucose levels are being controlled with frequent blood glucose testing combined with regular injections of insulin via syringe or insulin pump; however, blood glucose control using this treatment approach can be poor, leading to side effects such as heart, kidney and eye diseases as well as ischemia-induced amputations. According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, annual health care costs for the treatment of diabetes and its debilitating side effects are estimated to be over US $245 billion per year in North America (http://jdrf.org/).
About Sernova
Sernova Corp is a clinical stage regenerative medicine company developing medical technologies for the treatment of chronic debilitating metabolic diseases such as diabetes, blood disorders including hemophilia and other diseases treated through replacement of proteins or hormones missing or in short supply within the body. Sernova is developing the Cell Pouch(TM), an implantable medical device for therapeutic cells (donor, xenogeneic or stem cell derived therapeutic cells) which then release proteins and/or hormones as required.
For further information contact:
Philip Toleikis, Ph.D., President and CEO Tel: (604) 961-2939 philip.toleikis@sernova.com info@sernova.com www.sernova.com
Ray Matthews & Associates Suite 601-128 West Cordova Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 0E6 Tel: (604) 818-7778 www.raymatthews.ca
Forward Looking Information
This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could” or “should” occur. Although Sernova believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements, which include our beliefs about the functionality of the Cell Pouch and our expectations of the potential benefits of the license agreement, are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Sernova’s management on the date such statements were made. Sernova expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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