A new report available on ASDReports shows the world stem cells market will reach $10.7 billion in 2017, driven by product approvals for cardiovascular and CNS uses. Clinical-stage stem cell companies are targeting ischaemic diseases of the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems, the two biggest causes of death worldwide in 2012. More than 20 stem cell products tackling those diseases are in clinical trials.
Stem Cell Technologies: World Market Outlook 2013-2023 shows those stem cell candidates will seek to build on the momentum established by the approvals of products in 2011 and 2012. South Korea led the way, approving three products based on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from bone marrow or adipose tissue. In 2012, Osiris Therapeutics scored the first approval in the Anglosphere persuading regulators in Canada and New Zealand to approve Prochymal, an MSC-based treatment for juvenile graft vs. host disease (GvHD).
Dr James Evans, a pharmaceutical industry analyst, said: “People talk about the stem cells revolution as something for the future, but the market is evolving and these new MSC-based products are the next step. For 45 years we’ve been able to save lives through bone marrow transplantation, so it’s well-established that haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can cure disease. It’s a question now of working out how to create stem cell products, how to make that business model work.
“Adult stem cells like MSCs and HSCs have got a lot of potential in cardiovascular indications, because they’re immune-privileged, anti-inflammatory, and apparently have a number of other useful effects, though it will possibly need advances in systems biology before the mechanism of action can be elucidated. Phase III tests will show just how useful they are, and who’s got the best programme. Competition between Baxter and NeoStem is one interesting pipeline battle, but there are plenty of others in the hunt too. And the CNS pipeline is also of great interest, though nobody’s out of phase II yet in that field. But there are so many unmet needs, from Alzheimer’s to spinal injury, and neural stem cells (NSCs) in particular might be the best chance of finding a disease-modifying treatment for them at the moment.
“Longer-term, pluripotent cells might hold the key to those conditions, and many others besides. Advanced Cell Technologies is furthest advanced with human embryonic stem cell (hESC) R&D, with a trial in retinal diseases, and Pfizer is about to join it. And the first trial of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has been approved in Japan, just six years after those cells were first experimentally produced. The science is still moving fast.”
In particular, then, the study gives these analyses: