VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc., a company out of San Francisco committed to developing medicines to treat disorders of the central nervous system, has secured exclusive worldwide commercial rights to three patent-pending stem cell technologies from University Health Network (UHN), Canada’s largest research hospital.
VistaGen Acquires Stem Cell Patents
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The technologies were developed by Gordon Keller, M.D., Director of UHN’s McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine. The researchers anticipate the development of cells for multiple commercial applications, including regenerative therapies for heart and liver disease and osteoarthritis. VistaGen now holds five licenses to stem cell technologies.
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to further expand our relationship with UHN and McEwen Centre. These latest licensing agreements will be instrumental to our core drug rescue programs and lay a solid foundation to explore collaborative opportunities to advance Dr. Keller’s ground-breaking discoveries beyond the lab and towards the clinic, ” stated VistaGen CEO Shawn Singh.
The agreement between VistaGen Therapeutics and UHN covers the following:
- Methods and compositions for generating epicardium cells from pluripotent stem cells. Epicardium cells are essential for proper development of the heart, and play an important role in cardiac recovery.
- Methods for generating hepatocytes (a major cell-type in the liver) and cholangiocytes (cells which line the bile ducts) from pluripotent stem cells.
- Methods and compositions for generating chondrocyte lineage cells which produce either articular (cartilage) or growth plate (bone-forming) chondrocytes
VistaGen defines itself as being among the first generation of companies using pluripotent stem cell technology for potential commercial applications focused on producing proprietary new chemical entities through drug rescue.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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