Biotech startup to fight diabetes on the cellular front

New Cambridge biotech will be working on a treatment using stem cells that could let children and adults with Type 1 diabetes do something their bodies currently cannot: produce their own insulin, the hormone that keeps blood sugar levels in balance.

Semma Therapeutics is already off to a strong start. On Tuesday, the company will disclose it has raised $44 million from big-name investors, including Boston’s MPM Capital, to commercialize research from the lab of noted Harvard stem cell scientist Douglas Melton.






The startup, which is in the process of hiring employees and leasing lab space, is seeking to offer a different treatment approach in a field that hasn’t seen significant change for decades.
“This would be a huge breakthrough,” said Dr. George L. King, a Harvard Medical School professor and research director at Joslin Diabetes Center. “It could cure diabetes.”
But it is still likely to be years before Semma’s approach — transplanting insulin-secreting pancreatic “beta cells” into patients — will be available commercially.

First, Semma Therapeutics will have to surmount a daunting scientific challenge: overcoming the autoimmune response in Type 1 diabetes patients that causes their bodies to reject and destroy their own pancreatic cells, which naturally make insulin.
Felicia Pagliuca, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Melton’s lab in the Harvard Stem Cell Institute from 2011 to 2014, led a team that came up with a way to turn stem cells into cells that can produce insulin. Now, as Semma’s scientific cofounder, she will be working to turn those cells into a business — and a treatment for Type 1 diabetes.

DBT invites fresh proposals from biotech

he Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has invited fresh proposals from biotech companies for providing support on a cost sharing basis targeted at development of novel and high risk futuristic technologies mainly for viability gap funding and enhancing existing R&D capacities of start-ups and SMEs in key areas of national importance and public good.

Under this advanced technology scheme Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP), the DBT supports large, medium, small scale companies as well as start-up on cost sharing basis. It would push for high risk, discovery linked innovation and accelerated technology development. Varying models of grants, loans or grant plus loans will be made available under the scheme.  It will be one of the most enabling mechanisms to promote R&D in biotech industry and public private partnership programmes.

It will also focus on the evaluation and validation of biotech products and indigenous discovery, innovation and technology to products with focus on the products of national relevance or public benefit. BIPP is an advanced technology initiative by the DBT for supporting innovative and challenging R&D in industry.

Biotech - Bengaluru

Biotechnology has proved to be one of the fastest growing sectors in India and is expected to play a key role in shaping the country’s  rapidly developing economy. The sector has been looking at  combating life threatening diseases, reduce  energy crisis and food scarcity which are among the serious  challenges globally.  These  issues which were  also hindering the growth of the country have led the biotech sector to advance its research and development capabilities and bring to the fore novel solutions like newer drugs and  advanced technologies to handle shortage of  fuel and food.

The sector which offers employment to 100, 000 people , has the potential to increase it to six to seven times in the coming years. It is optimally poised to deliver higher growth and introduce new products in 2013 which is seen as a year of immense possibilities.

Karnataka plays a crucial role in the biotech success story of India. The state accounts for over 50 per cent of the 300 biotech companies in India. It has also chipped in 50 per cent of the Rs.28,500 crore ($5 billion) generated by Indian biotech in 2012-13 contributed by the vaccines, diagnostics, drug delivery devices, biosimilars and bio fuels.

Of the 390 R&D companies in Bengaluru, biotech industry forms an integral part of the innovation. This importance to technology and the rising eminence of Bengaluru through the 13th edition of Bangalore India Bio cannot be ignored, said  principal secretary, department of information technology, biotechnology and science & technology, government of Karnataka.


Karnataka has created safe good biotechnology practices which could be shared with other states and also become a brand ambassador for the country. At this platform, the three -day event will see an  expression of  diverse views which could be converted into proposals to the union and state governments .We need to advocate good research, manufacturing and marketing practices  which is the foundation of economic prosperity and growth, said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson Vision Group on Biotechnology, government of Karnataka, Executive Committee member-Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs (ABLE) and CMD Biocon Limited.

Bioeconomy - Initiative

 In 2012, the number of companies grew by only 2.3%, their workforce by 6.9 %, and their revenues  by 10.7%.

The ten top-selling drugs worldwide include five biopharmaceuticals. Medical biotech companies in Germany have so far not developed any blockbuster drug, and in 2012 they did not gain approval to market a new drug. However, a growing trend of the pharmaceutical industry is to outsource their research, which leads to increased cooperation between the pharmaceutical industry and biotech companies.
 

Industrial biotech companies are benefiting from changes in politics and society. As part of the Bioeconomy Initiative, the Federal Government encourages unusual alliances between biotech companies and other industries. For example, microorganisms should in the future be used to convert CO₂ emissions of the steel industry into basic chemicals and other high-value products.
 
Also, the use of renewable resources instead of fossil resources and the public awareness of bio-based products are growing. Due to this, chemical and consumer industry companies, such as BASF and DSM, cooperate more and more with biotech companies.