Novo Nordisk has partnered with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) for technology for generating good manufacturing practice (GMP) human embryonic stem-cell lines. The technology will support Novo Nordisk’s increased focus on stem cell-based therapies and expand its focus on Type I diabetes into other chronic diseases.

Under its agreement with USCF, Novo Nordisk has licensed a technology to enable the generation of GMP human embryonic stem-cell lines as well as the rights to further develop these into future regenerative medicine therapies. In early May 2018, the partners reached a milestone with the inauguration of a new GMP laboratory at UCSF where employees from the university and Novo Nordisk will be working together on deriving the planned cell lines. 

Together with Cornell University, Novo Nordisk has also progressed in developing an encapsulation device that is designed to protect the beta cells that are transplanted into patients from attack by the immune system. Novo Nordisk says it anticipates that the first clinical trial could be initiated within the next few years.

Novo Nordisk says that the development of GMP-grade stem-cell lines in collaboration with UCSF has enabled it to expand its focus in regenerative therapies on serious chronic diseases beyond diabetes. The company recently partnered with Biolamina, a Stockholm, Sweden-based biotechnology company, and Lund University, a Lund, Sweden-based public university, to develop stem cell-based treatments for Parkinson’s disease. In another partnership with Biolamina and the Duke National University Singapore Medical School, Novo Nordisk is focusing on chronic heart failure and age-related macular degeneration.

Source: Novo Nordisk