Date: 2014-04-14
Type of information: Grant
Company: BloodPharma consortium (the Scottish National Blood Service (UK), Cell Therapy Catapult (UK), NHS Blood and Transplant (UK), Roslin Cells (UK))
Investors: Wellcome Trust (UK)
Amount: £5 million (€ 6.04 million)
Funding type: grant
Planned used: The BloodPharma consortium has been working on the development of red blood cells for transfusion from pluripotent stem cells for around 4 years. The original programme demonstrated that it is possible to generate enucleated red cells at sufficient scale to allow initial studies in human volunteers. The purpose of the current programme is to manufacture red cells at sufficient standards of quality and safety to allow clinical studies to proceed subject to regulatory approval. The research funded by the award involves multiplying and converting pluripotent stem cells into red blood cells for use in humans, with aim of making the process scalable for manufacture on a commercial scale. The Cell Therapy Catapult will be using its expertise to help deliver a robust manufacturing process, to develop the nonclinical and clinical studies, and provide guidance on data requirements for market access optimisation. Clinical trials to assess the safety of this new approach are expected to start at the end of 2016.
Others: * On April 14, 2014, the Wellcome Trust has given a £5m strategic award to the BloodPharma consortium.The research funded by the award involves multiplying and converting pluripotent stem cells into red blood cells for use in humans, with aim of making the process scalable for manufacture on a commercial scale.
Therapeutic area:
