The funding award to Betalin Therapeutics along with their partners from Dresden and Zurich was just announced.
The demand for diabetes drugs keeps increasing as adult diabetes prevalence is estimated to have risen to 629 million by 2045. There is an urgent need for more effective diabetes medications, which is complicated by the poor predictability of current models in the identification of lead compounds during drug discovery.
The EU-funded “Cells in Matrix” project, coordinated by Betalin Therapeutics, is developing the ‘engineered micro pancreas’ (EMP), a 3D model for the R&D of diabetes drugs. It is based on an organ-derived 3D cell culture and human insulin-producing cells and will offer acceleration and cost reduction in diabetes drug development. The EMP system offers extended shelf life and function for in-depth studies on drug molecules’ mode of action, validation, toxicology and in vitro pharmacokinetics, enabling higher predictability and reliability. “Cells in Matrix” disruptive technology creates market added value to all the stakeholders, especially pharma industry, by improving compound screening at least X4 (from 5% rate of success today to at least 20%), resulting in cost saving that could reach €100 million per innovative new drug development.
The project receives strong interest from stakeholders and plans immediate commercialization of the product to direct end users, including academia and pharma companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim. The FTI funding will enable market entry and validation & support external fundraising for the wider penetration of the global drug discovery market. Betalin Therapeutics and Kugelmeiers, the project commercial leading partners will share the growth and revenues gained by its commercial success. Other partners in the project are the Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany) and Zurich University (Switzerland).
The Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) of the Horizon 2020 program is a fully-bottom-up innovation support programme promoting close-to-the-market innovation activities open to industry-driven consortia that can be composed of all types of participants. It can help partners to co-create and test breakthrough products, services or business processes that have the potential to revolutionize existing or create entirely new markets, under the helm of the Enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot
About Betalin Therapeutics, Ltd.
Established in 2015, Betalin Therapeutics is developing a biological micro pancreas implanted with human-source pancreatic islets, based on 10 years’ research led by Hebrew University’s Professor Eduardo Miterani.. The Endocrine Micro-Pancreas (EMP™) is intended to be transplanted subcutaneously to patients suffering from Type 1 or severe Type 2 diabetes and restore their ability to produce insulin and have normal glycemic control. The Company has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for the EMP™ technology with Yissum, the Technology Transfer Company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For additional information, please visit http://www.betalintherapeutics.com/
Contact:
Shay Herchcovici, VP Business Development, Betalin Therapeutics
shay at betalintherapeutics.com
Tel: +972.50.843.1473
