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Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a chronic, life-threatening disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States, 30,000 new cases are estimated every year with half of those cases diagnosed in young children. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the patient`s immune system goes awry and attacks and destroys the pancreatic beta cells. Beta cells are responsible for regulating blood sugar (glucose) levels by producing precise amounts of the essential hormone insulin. The discovery of injectable insulin in the 1920s changed T1D from a uniformly fatal disease with a life expectancy of months to one that could be carefully managed for decades through multiple daily blood glucose measurements and insulin injections. However, insulin injections are not a cure and patients face a lifetime of difficult disease management and serious complications including kidney failure, blindness and nerve damage. Despite nearly a century passing since the discovery of insulin, insulin injection remains the only treatment available to patients. Semma Therapeutics was founded to develop transformative therapies for patients who currently depend on insulin injections. Recent work in the laboratory of Professor Douglas Melton led to the discovery of a method to generate billions of functional, insulin-producing beta cells in the laboratory. These cells develop in islet-like clusters grown from stem cells. Initial preclinical work in animal models of diabetes has shown that transplantation of these cells are sufficient to control blood glucose levels. This breakthrough technology has been exclusively licensed to Semma Therapeutics for the development of a cell-based therapy for diabetes. Ongoing research at Semma Therapeutics is focused on combining these proprietary cells with a state-of-the-art cell delivery and immune protection strategy that can protect these cells from the patient`s immune system and allow the beta cells to function as they do in non-diabetic individuals. Implantation of the beta cell-filled device has the potential to provide a true replacement for the missing beta cells in a diabetic patient and would not require patient immunosuppression. Semma Therapeutics is working to bring this new therapeutic option to the clinic and improve the lives of patients with diabetes.
Seed Health is a microbial sciences company pioneering applications of microbes for human and planetary health. In collaboration with leading academic researchers, we advance breakthrough discoveries in microbial sciences across a pipeline of novel therapeutics, consumer health innovations and environmental solutions.
Vital Therapies, Inc. is a biotherapeutic company focused on developing a cell-based system for the treatment of acute liver failure. Our product candidate, the ELAD® System, is a human cell-based, bio-artificial liver support system that operates outside the body, or extracorporeally, and is designed with the proposed intent to allow the patient’s own liver to regenerate to a healthy state, or to stabilize the patient until liver transplant. The ELAD System incorporates our human liver-derived cells, or VTL C3A cells, contained in four hollow fiber cartridges, that are combined with single use customized disposable sets and an ancillary delivery system. Data from ELAD clinical studies has shown trends that may indicate a potential to increase survival rates in patients with acute liver failure. ELAD has received orphan designation in the United States and Europe for the treatment of acute liver failure. Prior to the initiation of our ongoing Phase III clinical trial program, over 145 subjects have received therapy with the ELAD System in seven clinical trials and through a compassionate use program, which we believe collectively suggests a promising therapeutic profile. In March 2013, we initiated VTI-208, a Phase III randomized, controlled clinical trial in 200 subjects with alcohol-induced liver decompensation. We reached the midpoint in enrollment of this trial in April 2014, and anticipate the release of preliminary data in the first half of 2015. In addition, we are conducting a second Phase III randomized, controlled clinical trial, VTI-210, in 150 subjects with severe acute alcoholic hepatitis, or AAH, which is a subset of AILD, and expect to initiate enrollment of subjects later in 2014. In the second quarter of 2014, we began enrollment of a Phase II clinical trial of the ELAD System in subjects with either fulminant hepatic failure, or FHF, or surgery-induced acute liver failure, or SILF. We anticipate the release of data from VTI-210 in 2016 and the Phase II component of VTI-212 in 2015 or 2016.
Gel-Del is a Saint Paul, MN-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Manufacturer of diagnostics for global fungal diseases such as, cryptococcosis, aspergillosis, histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), blastomycosis, and candida.