Cell Therapy
Cell Therapy involves replacing cells lost or damaged by disease, so called cell replacement therapies. They have the potential to stop or even reverse disease progression.
What is Cell Replacement Therapy?
Cell replacement therapy is an innovative approach to medicine that uses healthy cells to replace a person’s cells which have been damaged and lost due to disease. Instead of focusing on symptom management, cell therapy aims to replace lost cells that are specific to a given tissue or organ to restore activity.
How does it work?
Cell therapies work when physicians administer new, healthy tissue cells that have the ability to replace lost or damaged cells and help restore their function. In clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease, cell therapy is used to replace the dopamine-producing nerve cells that have been damaged or lost. The cells used in cell replacement therapies are produced in a closely monitored process, so that each dose can be rigorously tested to ensure that it is safe and high-quality. Cell therapies that take cells directly from the person with disease and modify them before reintroducing them back into the same person, or a “one-for-one” approach, are called autologous therapies. Cell therapies that can be used for many people, or a “one-for-many” approach, are referred to as allogeneic therapies. At Bayer we develop allogeneic cell therapies. Today, 70 cell therapies have already been approved for clinical use globally to treat a wide range of diseases. In addition, a growing number of cell therapies are currently in clinical trials, highly regulated studies which monitor participants over months or years, and which are used to determine if new medicines are safe and effective.
What is Bayer's Strategy in Cell Therapy?
By acquiring BlueRock Therapeutics (BlueRock) in 2019, Bayer ventured into cell replacement therapy. BlueRock’s cell therapy platform allows for the creation of a virtually unlimited number of specialized, differentiated cells that can be used to create regenerative medicines for many intractable diseases that come with significant cell loss or reduce the ability of cells to self-repair. To create next-generation cell therapies, we are also incorporating gene editing with an aim to increase potency and persistence, further reduce immunogenicity, or build safeguard mechanisms into the cells, making cell therapy an even more powerful tool to help patients suffering from intractable diseases.