Third time is certainly charming - CIRM-funded company gets financial boost

Courtesy: Filipe Matos Frazao

For the third time in as many weeks another company we fund got a very nice financial boost on its way to clinical trials.  The latest news involves ViaCyte, a San Diego-based company that has developed a device to help patients with type 1 diabetes. Over the years we have given ViaCyte close to $40 million to help them develop this product and to get it out of the lab and into clinical trials in people.

Today the company announced that it has just received $7 million from another long-time supporter of this research, the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). In a news release announcing the funding, Jeffrey Brewer, JDRF President and Chief Executive Officer said:

"ViaCyte has an innovative and advanced technology that we believe has the potential to significantly benefit people with type 1 diabetes. A product like VC-01 could someday be a key step in helping JDRF achieve its vision of creating a world without type 1 diabetes."

The VC-01 is a device about the size of a credit card that can be inserted under the skin of a patient with type 1 diabetes. The device contains cells derived from human embryonic stem cells that become insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. The cells enable the device to monitor blood sugar levels and secrete insulin and other hormones out into the body when those levels are too low or too high.

ViaCyte is hoping to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take the device into clinical trials later this year and this extra infusion of cash from JDRF will be a useful addition to our support. Dr. Paul Laikind, ViaCyte’s President and CEO welcomed the funding saying:

“Together with JDRF, we will soon determine if the promising results demonstrated in preclinical studies translate to patients. If so, the VC-01 product candidate could potentially represent a practical cure for type 1 diabetes, and possibly an important therapy for patients with insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes as well.”

This kind of financial support is vital in helping get promising therapies like this into clinical trials. In January two other companies we are funding signed agreements with larger companies that could result in the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into their work. We blogged about Capricor Therapeutics signing a deal with Janssen Biotech for it’s work using stem cells to treat heart attack patients, and Sangamo Biosciences reaching a deal on global collaboration with Biogen Idec for its work in sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

kevin mccormack