Although Controversial, Stem Cell Therapies Exhibit Potential in Biotechnology Markets

Stem cells have enormous potential for repairing damage to the body caused by disease, injury, or aging. When introduced into an injured area of a patient, a stem cell could survive and repopulate the region with different types of cells, forming normal tissue.

Stem cells also offer the prospect of treating many inherited diseases caused by a single, defective gene. Though other treatments are available, such as gene therapy, the longevity of benefits from stem cell treatment provides a tantalizing option for researchers.

Heated controversy has arisen over the ethics of using embryonic stem cells, extracted from either very early embryos or fetuses. The United States has now limited stem cell use to a relatively small number of existing cell lines.

Stem cells are pluripotent, possessing the ability to differentiate into other types of cells. However, other stem cells, which are not derived from embryos and not completely pluripotent, have great potential to differentiate into cells, redeveloping certain tissues or organs. Hematopoietic cells, found in the bone marrow and umbilical cord, for example, can differentiate into all types of blood cells.

In order to make stem cell therapy a reality, it is not only necessary to have suitable stem cells, but also to know how to direct their differentiation and formation of new tissues. Scientists have begun to make new discoveries concerning genes and their protein products that govern various types of cell differentiation, but additional research is imperative.

Stem cell therapies are inherently more complicated than drug treatment, providing a stumbling block for stem cell therapy in the marketplace. However, while stem cell therapy remains costly, it will almost certainly last for several years before the procedure must be repeated. A low annual cost of $2500 per patient for stem cell therapy products at the manufacturer’s level is an average cost spread over several years.

While stem cells offer the possibility of treating many inherited diseases caused by a single defective gene, this disease group is composed of a very large number of different diseases, each one often affecting only a small number of people. Separate therapies will have to be developed for each one of them. Nevertheless, stem cells should be able to compete with replacement therapy with recombinant proteins to address many of these disorders.

New analysis by Technical Insights, a business unit of Frost & Sullivan (http://www.ti.frost.com), featured in Genetic Technology Alert, highlights nine biotech companies which are developing innovative stem cell products, providing new avenues to medical breakthroughs.

Frost & Sullivan is a global leader in strategic market consulting and training. Acquired by Frost & Sullivan, Technical Insights is an international technology research business that produces a variety of technical news alerts, newsletters, and reports. The ongoing research on stem cell therapy is covered in Genetic Technology Alert, a Technical Insights subscription and in Proteomics, a Technical Insights technology analysis. Analyst interviews are available to the press upon request.

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