PharmaCell's R&D Program

INTACT1 is a program derived from the 'Acceleration Agenda' of the Province of Limburg and is aimed at initiating research projects in the area of homologous (patient-own) cell therapy. The first INTACT development project is aimed at development of blood vessels and arteries in a bioreactor, which are to be used in bypass operations. The benefit for the patient is that it is no longer necessary to extract veins surgically from the leg. The German company Matricel and the University Hospital of Maastricht participate in this project, directed by PharmaCell.

The BioMedical Materials program (BMM) is a public private partnership, which aims to further strengthen the world-leading position of the Netherlands in the field of biomedical materials and applications. BMM is an initiative of leading Dutch industrial players, SMEs, charity foundations, academia, and a research institute. Biomedical materials will play a key role in enabling medical breakthroughs in healthcare, which are essential to meeting the increasing demand for more efficient and effective medical treatment. BMM will translate its breakthrough innovations into successful medical applications, intellectual property rights, and scientific publications.
Within the BMM program, PharmaCell BV participates in the SmartCare consortium. The aim of this consortium is to develop an autologous regenerative cellular approach for damaged myocardium, using cardiac progenitors. Those need to be expanded and possibly directed towards their first step of differentiation before being re-injected to the myocardium in a supportive biomaterial. In this consortium, that comprises of the universities of Utrecht and Leiden, DSM, Philips and a number of specialized SME’s, PharmaCell BV will develop the GMP culture of the cells and will advice on the regulatory issues that accompany the development of the carrier material and the loading of that material with the cells.

STAVAC is a cooperative effort of DCPrime, PharmaCell  BV and the VU University Medical Center to develop a dendritic cell based vaccine against prostate cancer. In this project, PharmaCell BV develops the large scale, GMP compliant culture technique of a DC progenitor cell line and creates both a Master and a Working Cell Bank for the further development of the vaccine by DCPrime. SenterNovem, an agency of the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs, has granted a subvention of € 1 million for this project.

In the Theraptech program, Alloksys Life Sciences BV (Bunnik, The Netherlands) , CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH (Cologne, Germany) and PharmaCell BV have set out to develop a recombinant human alkaline phosphatase (rhuAP). Based on the anti-inflammatory mechanism of action of AP towards e.g.  TNFa, IL6 and IL-8, as shown in both pre-clinical and clinical studies in acute conditions, we propose rhuAP  to be developed as a therapeutic protein in chronic diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis. Using the novel versatile human CAP? cell line, which has been shown to efficiently express glycosilated proteins, the rhuAP produced in CAP? cells is expected to feature a superior pharmacokinetic and safety profile allowing for repeated dosing in chronic diseases. The consortium aims towards a  clinical phase II compliant product within the 3-year-time frame of the project. To this end, 2.4 million Euro was granted as a development subsidy under the European Trans Bio Program.