Philadelphia-based Century Therapeutics is broadening its drug development pipeline with a new candidate aimed at treating Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that affects 2 million people in the U.S., writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
“There is a massive unmet need in Type 1 diabetes,” said Century CEO Brent Pfeiffenberger. “Type 2 diabetes gets a lot of press, but you have 9 million patients worldwide with Type 1.”
The cell therapy developer began looking into potential applications of its technology platform for Type 1 diabetes in the first quarter of the year, but did not reveal any details until the release of its third-quarter financial report this month.
“We wanted to make sure we had the validating data sets behind it,” said Pfeiffenberger. “Over the course of the year, we started to see data emerging that really put us in a position to say this has tremendous potential.”
The company develops allogeneic cell therapies using induced pluripotent stem cells, lab-created stem cells produced by reprogramming adult cells into an early, flexible state. Their pluripotent nature allows them to transform into almost any cell type in the body, such as nerve cells, heart cells, or insulin-producing beta cells.
Read more about Century Therapeutics and its new Type 1 diabetes drug candidate in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
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