GE Healthcare funds significant stem cell research programme

GE Healthcare and US Biotechnology firm Geron Corporation have announced an exclusive global agreement to commercialise stem cell drug discovery technologies.

GE Healthcare, based in Cardiff, South Wales, will work with Geron to develop and commercialise cellular assay products derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) for use in drug discovery, development and toxicity screening.

The combination of GE Healthcare’s Cell Factory capability for cell reproduction and manufacturing with Geron’s hESC technology will make it possible to generate a large-scale supply of hESC-derived cells which retain normal cellular functions and could address bottlenecks in new drug research and accelerate the drug development process.

Cells derived from hESC have similar attributes to their counterparts in the body, and can therefore be used to predict many pharmacological characteristics of a drug candidate.

This alliance aims to develop cellular assay products derived from hESC that
could be used in early in vitro screening of drug candidates to allow earlier
detection of toxicity problems and reduce overall drug development costs and
potentially harmful exposure in clinical trials.

GE Healthcare will fund the R&D programme and will be responsible for manufacturing, sales and distribution of products developed under the agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, intellectual property rights arising from the alliance programme research will be shared, with GE Healthcare receiving rights for the development of drug discovery technologies and Geron receiving rights for cell therapy applications.

"Combining GE Healthcare’s reach into the drug discovery and research markets, as well as our expertise in cell manufacturing, with Geron’s expertise and intellectual property in hESC means that together we will be able to accelerate the development of hESC-derived products for drug discovery and development."
Konstantin Fiedler
General Manager, Cell Technologies
GE Healthcare

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Source: Advances Wales, 62