Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with Cynata Therapeutics Limited (ASX:CYP) Managing Director and CEO, Dr Ross Macdonald Lelde Smits:Cynata Therapeutics Limited
(ASX:CYP) is a stem cell and regenerative medicine company developing a therapeutic stem cell platform technology. Cynata’s proprietary Cymerus™ manufacturing platform ensures that cells for therapeutic use can be produced in virtually limitless quantities, creating the potential for a new standard in regenerative medicine and stem cell therapeutics.
I’m Lelde Smits and joining me at ASX Investor Series in Sydney is the Company’s Managing Director and CEO, Dr Ross Macdonald. Ross welcome.
Dr Ross Macdonald: Thank you.
Lelde Smits: Cynata celebrated a major milestone in February. Could you recap why this was a company-changing announcement?
Dr Ross Macdonald: Well let me begin by saying that there have been several real revolutions in medicine that have made a major impact on healthcare, the lives of patients and economies. We’ve seen historically revolutions like the analgesic revolution, antibiotics, antiviral drugs and most recently, monoclonal antibodies. With stem cells and regenerative medicine, I believe we’re now on the crest of a further revolution, a wave of new medicine.
But all of those discoveries have required a solution to a manufacturing issue, before those drugs could ever make it to market. And it’s that manufacturing solution that Cynata provides with its proprietary Cymerus™ technology.
Lelde Smits: What progress have you made in the scale up of manufacturing stem cells for therapeutic use?
Dr Ross Macdonald: We’re fortunate in that many of the companies that are already operating in the stem cell field, have blazed a trail for us. And that now we’re just delivering the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle, the manufacturing methodology. Our program at Waisman Biomanufacturing in the United States has resulted in the transfer of what is essentially, an academic curiosity in the laboratory environment, to a good manufacturing practice commercial scale environment. Thereby ensuring when it comes to manufacturing product at commercial scale, we won’t encounter any major problems.
Lelde Smits: What are Cynata’s plans for commercialising its therapeutic technology?
Dr Ross Macdonald: Cynata has a very clear commercial strategy and that is to partner our technology. The biotech industry has seen great successes in small cap and biotech companies partnering with large biotech and big pharmaceutical companies, in areas where they have technical revolutions. And it’s in that area that we feel that we’re going to be best served and the best result for our shareholders.
We have an experienced team in place to execute on a partnering strategy and my own background has been involved in partnering licensing mergers and acquisitions, for the last 25 years.
Lelde Smits: Can you detail why is Cynata’s technology a game changer for the industry?
Dr Ross Macdonald: Well the current manufacturing methods have undoubtedly facilitated the advances in stem cell based medicines. But they are constrained by the reliance upon donors and expansion technologies thatresult in an inconsistent variable product. It’s that shortcoming, that solution that Cynata provides with its Cymerus™ technology.
Lelde Smits: What are Cynata’s immediate priorities and also your plans to scale your platform?
Dr Ross Macdonald: Cynata has two core operational goals for this year. The first is our partnering activities and we have commenced plans towards that end. And we hope to announce a partnering deal, at least one, during the course of this calendar year. And then the second part of our strategy is to continue the development of our Cymerus™ product. And the first disease indication that we will pursue there is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a condition that is particularly devastating and that arises in cancer patients.
We will announce to the market in due course, our schedule for conducting that clinical trial. But at the moment we’re in discussions with regulatory authorities around the world, to understand exactly what it is that they require from us, to allow us to commence that study. In the meantime, we’re continuing with our preclinical development plan. And we will also make announcements to the market about progress on that front as well, during the course of this year.
Lelde Smits: Ross Macdonald, thank you for the update from Cynata Therapeutics.
Dr Ross Macdonald: Thank you.
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