Date: 2015-08-04
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells patent portfolio
Company: Minerva Biotechnologies (USA - MA) iPS Academia Japan (Japan)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Technology - Services
Type agreement: licensing
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Details: * On August 4, 2015, Minerva Biotechnologies and iPS Academia Japan announced that they have signed an agreement granting Minerva worldwide rights to use and commercialize the induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells patent portfolio arising from the work of Professor Shinya Yamanaka, MD, Ph.D., who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2012 for his discovery of four genes that can reprogram an adult’s cell to go back in time to become that person’s own stem cell. Minerva Biotechnologies discovered a naturally occurring, primitive growth factor that continues this reprogramming to an even earlier, embryonic-like point called the ‘naïve’ state. The agreement with iPS Academia Japan allows Minerva to generate and sell naïve state human iPS cells as well as mature cells derived from them, for research, drug toxicity testing and for personalized stem cell banking. Minerva Biotechnologies is the first company to generate human naïve state iPS cells using a single, naturally occurring human stem cell growth factor. Previous attempts to grow human stem cells in the elusive naïve state, which used cocktails of biochemical inhibitors and mouse growth factors, were prone to develop abnormal karyotype. Naïve stem cells generated with Minerva’s primitive growth factor have normal and stable karyotype. The generation of iPS cells from adult skin or blood cells does not involve the use of embryos and so does not invoke ethical issues. Minerva Biotechnologies is a pioneer in the field of stem cells and cancer stem cells. Minerva was first to discover that cancer cells hijack an otherwise normal stem cell growth mechanism, involving a growth factor receptor called MUC1*. By studying human stem cells in parallel with human cancer cells, Minerva scientists figured out how cancer cells override the normal ‘shut off’ switch that stops stem cells from self-replicating indefinitely. The Company is developing a panel of anti-cancer drugs that target a cancer-specific MUC1* growth factor receptor and a testis specific cancer antigen that promotes metastasis. As of this date, Minerva will market its naïve state stem cells and its naïve-inducing stem cell growth factor and reagents.
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