Regenerate Life Science formed to develop advancement of cardiovascular medicine with stem cell therapy

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Anthony Mathur and John Martin

A new company, Regenerative Life Science, has been formed by Magnus Life Sciences founder and chief scientist, John Martin, and Anthony Mathur, professor of Cardiology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts Health NHS Trust, UK.

The company will concentrate on developing new technologies to aid in the advancement of cardiovascular medicines using stem cell therapy. Clinical studies leading to the formation of the new company have been performed at Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London, UK.

Magnus will continue to work with both organisations, who will become stakeholders in Regenerate Life Science. The company has been set up to commercially exploit the positive phase II results for a novel stem cell based therapy for the treatment of patients with either dilated cardiomyopathy or ischaemic heart disease.

The REGENERATE-DCM study is the first randomised placebo-controlled trial to assess the combination of granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) with adjunctive-intracoronary delivery of autologous bone marrow-derived cells to show improvements in global left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. At three months, peripheral G-CSF combined with intracoronary delivery of autologous bone marrow-derived cells therapy was associated with a 5.37% point increase in LVEF, which was maintained to one year. This was associated with changes in other clinically relevant factors including an improvement in New York Heart Association classification, reduced N-terminal of the prohormone brain natriuretic peptide, improved exercise capacity and quality of life. The results for Regenerate’s phase II trial REGENERATE-IHD in ischaemic heart failure are equally positive, according to a Magnus press release, with further information to be made available in the second quarter of 2016.

David Campbell, chief executive officer of Magnus Life Science, says, “There is great expectation around the use of stem cells across a number of therapeutic areas. Our data supports the use of such an approach to treat patients with heart disease and I look forward to assisting Regenerate Life Science as the company moves through the remaining regulatory hurdles to market entry.”

Michele Hill-Perkins, head of Biopharma Queen Mary Innovation, Queen Mary University of London, says, “This new regenerative therapy has the potential for huge impact in not only saving lives but also improving the quality of life for the patients with this debilitating disease.”

Anthony Mathur, co-founder of Regenerate Life Science, says, “I would like to thank Heart Cells Foundation who, together with Barts Charity, sponsored the original clinical trials. I am extremely grateful for their continued support without which we would not be able to progress this therapeutic towards the clinic. The next stage in the development of Regenerate is extremely exciting as innovation steers towards stem cell therapies in clinical application…We are experiencing such high instances of irreversible damage caused by tissue death resulting from heart failure that the problem must be rectified through the integration and use of stem cells. We aim to move forwards in our research in 2016 as we continue to progress through the clinical trial process.”