One surprising and hopeful silver lining to the news of 2020 comes to us courtesy of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM). This year, the year of COVID-19 and “delayed” elective surgeries, set a new record for financing regenerative medicine technologies and businesses.
2020 Record Year for Regenerative Medicine Financing
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In the first three quarters of 2020, venture capital, private equity and other investors put a record $15.9 billion in financing into the, broadly defined, regenerative medicine business. This includes financing for the cell, gene, and tissue-based therapies sector. This financing breaks the previous financing record of $13.5 billion set during the full year of 2018.
ARM’s report calls this the “best year on record for regenerative medicine and advanced therapy financing.” According to ARM’s data, gene therapy financing was $12 billion year-to-date, up 114% from 2019 levels; cell therapy financing was $11 billion year-to-date, up 242% from 2019; and tissue-based therapy financing was $311 million year-to-date, up 311% from 2019.
Where is this financing coming from? The report divides the financing into three categories: public financing, private financing, and corporate partnerships. This year, public financing propelled the increased financing in the sector with IPOs and follow-on financings exceeding past years.
At the end of the third quarter of 2020, 1,109 regenerative medicine clinical trials were ongoing worldwide. Of those clinical trials, 388 target “more prevalent diseases” including 38 that target COVID-19.
ARM CEO Janet Lambert spoke positively about the impact on patients for this level of investment: “There is strength across all types of investment and stages of the pipeline, from early-stage cell-based immuno-oncology to late-stage gene therapies. The outlook for patients has never been brighter.”
For 11 years, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine has been “the leading international advocacy organization dedicated to realizing the promise of regenerative medicines.” ARM’s mission is to promote “legislative, regulatory and reimbursement initiatives to advance this innovative and transformative sector, which includes cell therapies, gene therapies and tissue-based therapies.” It does this by representing more than 370 members from 25 countries.
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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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