Biotech, Pharma Firms React Coolly to New Research on Stem Cells Made Without Embryonic Cells
biz.yahoo.com
Despite excitement among some scientists -- and at the White House -- about an embryo-free technique for creating human stem cells, reaction from companies that might turn the research into treatments was muted.
In two papers published Tuesday, researchers reported successfully programming ordinary human skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, which can theoretically be transformed into a variety of human tissues.
Biotech executives said the announcement is scientifically interesting. But they said the new technique of creating stem cells is even less likely to yield meaningful results soon than is the method using embryonic cells -- which requires destroying embryos.
One executive, whose company's stem-cell treatments may soon enter human clinical trials, noted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is unlikely to quickly approve a regimen that requires a separate treatment be developed for each patient.
At South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc., one of the country's oldest and largest biotech companies, researchers did not seem poised to change course and leap on the new findings.
"We don't use stem cells, not because we're for them or against them, just because the way we make therapeutics doesn't require their use," said Robin Snyder, a Genentech spokeswoman.
The technique isn't likely "to bear any fruit," said Tom Okarma, president and chief executive of Geron Corp., a California biotech drug developer that has spent $100 million on human embryonic stem cell research.
"Most of the people who are doing this work and make the claim that this is going to change the therapeutic field really know nothing about cell therapy," Okarma said.
The scientists who pioneered the new approach have said that reprogramming an individual's own cells to mimic stem cells provides a way to create individually tailored transplant tissue unlikely to be rejected by that person's immune system.
But the process of getting the FDA to approve personalized treatments for medical use would ultimately prove far more expensive than using tissue grown from embryonic cells, Okarma said.
Menlo Park-based Geron hopes to start clinical trials next year for its long-promised stem cell treatment for spinal cord injuries. The company's stock fell six percent Tuesday following the research announcement.
At Advanced Cell Technology, Geron's chief rival in the race to create medical therapies using stem cells, the head of research hailed the new technique as revolutionary, though he advised calm.
Dr. Robert Lanza, chief science officer at Advanced Cell Technology, called the breakthrough the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers' first airplane.
Still, he said any medical uses of stem cells developed using the new technique were many years away.
"I can't overemphasize the use of caution here," Lanza said. "These are not ready for prime time."
Large drug companies appeared far from ready to embrace the new stem cells.
Stem cells generally may have "high potential" for creating more effective medicines, said Laura Woodin, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca PLC, known for its blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Crestor and its anti-psychotic Seroquel. She too advised caution.
"It is too early to say how the studies announced today might affect any research we pursue in this area," Woodin said. |
