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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.
Allergan is a multi-specialty health care company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices that enable people to live life to its greatest potential — to see more clearly, move more freely, express themselves more fully. Our focus fosters deep engagement with medical specialists and we make it our business to listen closely to their needs so that together we can advance patient care. We combine this strategic focus with a diversified approach that enables us to follow our research and development into new specialty areas where unmet needs are significant. In partnership with the medical community, we bring to bear scientific excellence and rigor to deliver leading products that improve patient outcomes. We go above and beyond this to provide education and information, with the highest level of integrity, that helps patients to fully understand the choices available to them and make well-informed treatment decisions with their doctors. We know we are successful when doctors and patients place their trust in our products and our company, when our employees excel and when our efforts make a meaningful difference in the lives of the patients and communities we serve.
PowerMedica is a Deerfield Beach, FL-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
ParaTechs is a Lexington, KY-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Volastra aims to extend the lives of patients with cancer by leveraging unique insights into chromosomal instability. Moving away from primary tumor models to target the site of metastasis in the toughest-to-treat solid tumors, we are altering the treatment paradigm for metastatic cancers.