Leading pharma majors have now set sights on the burgeoning stem cell product development space. From Pfizer to Genzyme, Teva, Cephalon in the international arena and Cipla in India have tied up with stem cell companies to take the science of regenerative medicine to the next level of growth.

The big pharma have already begun to team up with stem cell companies. For instance: Pfizer has tied up with Athersys, Genzyme with Osiris, Teva with Gamida Cell, Cephalon with Mesoblast and in India, Cipla has tied up with Stempeutics.  Pharma companies will invest billions of dollars in stem cell research in the next decade, said BN Manohar, chairperson, ABLE Committee on Regenerative Medicine.

The potential of mesenchymal and other stem cells will certainly attract pharma companies to expand their horizons to the stem cell field to develop stem cell as a drug, the ABLE RM chairperson told Pharmabiz.

In a few months, ABLE (Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs) Regenerative Medicine arm is confident about the access to Stem Cells as off-the-shelf products which would only transform the treatment options for the medical fraternity.

Considerable development is on in the space and majority of these products will be based on adult stem cells. These ready-to-use and off-the-shelf stem cell products can be utilised to treat various unmet medical needs. “Preclinical disease models are being developed to test the ability of these cells to protect at-risk cells and replace cells lost to injury or disease. Human mesenchymal stem cells, isolated from various post natal and adult human tissues, will become an attractive tool for their potential in cell therapy and will hit the market in the near future. New up-scaling technologies will emerge for mass production of stem cells without losing their inherent “stemness” properties, thereby making stem cell products affordable, informed Manohar.

Even though off-the-shelf allogeneic products will be available in the market in the near future, there will be a good scope for autologous product for certain indications, in particular for cosmetic applications. Autologous therapy using adult stem cells will move from a lab service model to a medical device model. Development of Point-of-Care medical devices will gain momentum where stem cells can be isolated in minutes from patient’s own bone marrow or adipose tissue followed by their administration to the target disease tissue. Millions of dollars will be spent in developing efficient, cost effective medical devices for autologous therapy.

Also in the next decade, generation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines and their differentiated derivatives will promote patient specific and  disease specific drug development. The major concerns of teratoma formation by these cells have to be overcome before their clinical application. Due to their pluripotent nature, iPSCs might change the entire scenario in drug development and will open avenues for personalized medicine using stem cells, said Manohar.