CLEVELAND, Ohio — Stem-cell companies may be able to blunt the economic doldrums of 2009 with new opportunities courtesy of a new administration, according to the interim chief executive of Cleveland’s Cell Targeting Inc.
Cell Targeting on Thursday said it appointed Joseph Wagner as its chief technology officer. Wagner for the last seven years worked as the vice president of cellular therapy at Neuronyx, a cell therapy company near Philadelphia where he oversaw a clinical trial for a cellular therapy aimed at treating heart attack patients.
“He’s one of the few people in this country who is truly knowledgeable in the field of cell therapy,” said Vince Kazmer, interim chief executive for Cell Targeting (CTI).
The three-member start-up is developing cell-therapy tools for regenerative medicine companies and the field of cardiology. The company, started in 2004 by Case Western Reserve University professor Arnold Caplan, last year received $1 million from Toucan Ventures to hire a CEO and chief technology officer.
By fall, Kazmer said the company will be out fund-raising again.
“First we need further proof of the principal that the technology has a broad range of cell therapies,” Kazmer said. “That’s absolutely critical. On the heels of that we will go fund-raising.”
Despite dreary predictions for venture capital investments this year, Kazmer said he’s emboldened by recent developments, including October’s $6.9 million investment in AcelleRX Theraputics, and news this week that Geron Corp. received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the first embryonic stem cell trial in the United States. The trial is a result of President Obama lifting the 2001 ban on federally funded stem cell research.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“There is an economic downturn,” Kazmer said. “More importantly, the new administration has released some of the hold on stem cell studies. That widens the field. More companies and institutional projects could use our technologies.”
CTI is scheduled later this year to collaborate with Cleveland Clinic, Athersys and AccelleRX on a study on regenerative medicine project through a Third Frontier grant.
Attracting Wagner to Cleveland is an example of the increasing number — and reputation — of regenerative medicine companies in the region, including Athersys, AcelleRX and Arteriocyte, Kazmer said.
Wagner’s work on the human clinical trial for treating heart attack patients dovetails with CTI, which expects its technology will apply to cardiology. Before Neuronyx, Wagner was an associate professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where his research focused on molecular and cellular approaches to brain development and regeneration, according to a release from BioEnterprise.
