Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Cynata Therapeutics (CYP) receives funding for its new clinical trial of Cymerus MSCs for kidney transplantation
- The Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) agreed to fund the clinical trial investigating Cynata’s Cymerus MSCs as a treatment for renal graft rejection and to potentially reduce the requirement for anti-rejection drugs
- As part of the agreement, Cynata will supply the stem cells at its own cost and will maintain full commercial rights
- The clinical trial is expected to begin in 2023, pending approval
- Cynata Therapeutics is down 1.67 per cent, trading at 29.5 cents at 1:45 pm AEDT
Cynata Therapeutics (CYP) has been granted funding for its new clinical trial of Cymerus mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) for kidney transplantation.
The Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) has agreed to fund the clinical trial investigating Cynata’s Cymerus MSCs as a treatment for renal graft rejection and to potentially reduce the requirement for anti-rejection drugs.
As part of the agreement, Cynata will supply iPSC-derived Cymerus mesenchymal stem cells at its own cost to facilitate the trial, and will maintain full commercial rights.
Cymerus is a proprietary therapeutic stem cell platform technology that overcomes the challenges of other production methods by using induced pluripotent stem cells and a precursor cell.
This aims to achieve the economic manufacture of cell therapy products at commercial scale without the limitation of multiple donors.
Currently, lifelong immune suppressive therapy is required for renal transplant patients to reduce the risk of rejection. This can lead to an increased risk of infections and cancer, with the main anti-rejection drugs considered directly toxic to the kidneys.
The trial will be led by Professor Ton Rabelink, Head of the Department of Internal Medicine of LUMC, and will seek to recruit 10 patients who have undergone a renal transplant.
“This exciting new collaboration follows very promising clinical trial data with MSCs published by Professor Rabelink and our own published pre-clinical data in organ transplant rejection,” Cynata Chief Executive Officer Dr Ross Macdonald said.
“The potential to enhance survival of transplanted donor organs while at the same time reducing or eliminating the need for damaging anti-rejection drugs would be a substantial breakthrough in transplantation medicine.
“We are delighted to be working with one of Europe’s leading transplant centres and with Professor Rabelink and his team to conduct this important clinical trial.”
The clinical trial is expected to begin in 2023, pending approval.
Cynata Therapeutics was down 1.67 per cent, trading at 29.5 cents at 1:45 pm AEDT.
