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Cell Therapy/Regenerative Medicine – The Future of The Healthcare Industry?

The healthcare industry has been one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries. Making up over 10% of gross domestic product of most developed nations, the industry has accounted for 20% of all global research & development investments and has generated more than $700 billion. This success is currently supported by three main sectors: Pharmaceuticals (chemicals); Biopharmaceuticals (biologics) & Medical Devices (tools). A recent report from A.T. Kearney (2009), however, outlines a gloomy future for the industry, with an ever decreasing pipeline of new drugs to replace blockbusters that are going off-patent. This is despite a significant increase in investment in research & development. In this report, Kearney points out that the healthcare industry will either have to compete within smaller niches or to move away from current traditional markets and models focusing more heavily on biotechnology to drive future growth.

Cell Therapy, the process of introducing new cells into a tissue in order to treat disease, is emerging as a new sector within the Healthcare Industry with the potential to deliver substantial health benefits as well as wealth creation. The field is focused on the repair, replacement, or regeneration of cells, tissues or organs to restore impaired function resulting from a number of causes including congenital defects, disease, trauma or aging. It uses a number of approaches including stem cell transplantation; tissue engineering; cell, tissue and organ transplantation; xenografts, transient cell therapies that disrupt/reduce natural disease progression; cell cancer vaccines; permanent cell replacement therapies (Mason & Manzotti, 2009). Could this emerging field play a significant part in the future of the healthcare industry, particularly in the form of personalised medicine?

Cell Therapy/Regenerative Medicine is not without its challenges.To date, relatively few products have reached the market owing to a variety of barriers, including a lack of funding and regulatory hurdles as outlined in a recent report about the UK market by Plagnol et al (2009). This lies against a backdrop of technical challenges associated with manufacturing living tissues on a large scale and the associated patent issues. The discovery that human somatic cells can be reprogrammed into Pluripotent Stem Cells has had significant impact on how the future of stem cell therapies is viewed. However, these particular cells have their own issues associated with their ability to proliferate indefinitely (Carpenter et al, 2009). New discoveries in stem cell biology will,however, soon bring revolutionary changes in the way physicians approach degenerative diseases, wound repair, autoimmune conditions, cancer, and reproductive medicine.

Within the Cell Therapy field, the stem cell market is currently dominated by several key players (Kattan, 2009). California based Geron dominates the embryonic stem cell market, and is perhaps 10 years away from commercialising a spinal cord treatment based on its research. The company recently announced the presentation of positive preliminary results from a Phase I/II clinical trial of a telomerase therapeutic vaccine for metastatic prostate cancer. Osiris Therapeutics currently dominates the adult stem cell market with their drug Prochymal which is used to fight the graft-versus-host disease affecting transplant recipients. According to Osiris the FDA could approve the drug within a year which would make them the first company to win approval for a stem cell drug. Other companies moving forward in the adult stem cell space include Stem Cells Inc., Cytori, and Aastrom Biosciences. Large pharmaceutical companies are also establishing themselves in the market: Pfizer announced in early 2009 that it was pumping $100 million into its international stem cell development program split between the company's Cambridge, MA site and the Cambridge, UK base. The British-based medical research subsidiary of General Electric, GE Healthcare also announced a multi-year alliance with Geron Corporation to have Geron provide GE scientists with an undisclosed amount of human embryonic stem cells which could replace animal trials in the future. This is part of GE healthcare’s long-term ambition to lead the development of enabling technologies for cell-based drug research and cell therapies (Kattan, 2009).

For the Cell Therapy field to realise its potential for growth, it will need to identify and attract world class talent for new senior roles. Being a relatively young and relatively small sector, talent so far has most been generated from universities or existing cell biology research groups within big pharma. There is, however, a shortage of individuals with a combination of the commercial and technical knowledge to strategically drive the field forwards. There are also challenges associated with finding candidates who can manage the diverse range of scientific areas under the umbrella of Cellular Therapy/Regenerative Medicine.  As the sector evolves and the key players establish themselves, this is a situation that is likely to change.

PiR Group is a leading specialist in life science executive search, placing highly experienced senior and board level professionals in several of the world’s largest pharma organisations and high growth, medium-sized speciality, emerging biopharma and medical device companies. Having been focussed on developing an expertise in the global Cell Therapy/Regenerative Medicine market,PiR Group is poised to aid growing companies in the Cell Therapy sector in meeting their recruitment needs. PiR Group has acquired a significant amount of data on all relevant players and the talent pool in the Cell Therapy/Regenerative Medicine domain, from big pharma to small biotech/stem cell companies, and tools providers to both academic research centres and industry.  We are positioning ourselves to be at the forefront of talent identification and talent acquisition in this emerging and diverse market.

Author: Dr Candida Rogers, Head of Research, PiR Group.

For further information please contact:

Maurice Herring, Managing Director, PiR Group - email: mh@pir-group.com

References:

  1. Anscombe, J; Thomas, M and Sawaya, O (2009). Pharmaceuticals out of balance. Reaching the tipping point. A.T. Kearneywww.atkearney.com.
  2. Carpenter, M; Frey-Vasconcells J; Rao M (2009). Developing safe therapies from human pluripotent stem cells. Nature Biotechnology 27(7) 606-613.
  3. Kattan, A (2009). Adult Stem Cells are a promising market. Fortune Magazine. June 16th.
  4. Mason, C and Manzotti, E (2009). Regen: the industry responsible for cell based therapies. Regenerative Medicine 4(6), 783-785.
  5. Plagnol, A; Rowley, E; Martin, P; Livesey, F (2009). Industry perceptions of barriers to commercialisation of regenerative products in the UK. Regenerative Medicine. 4(4), 549-559.