Lineage Cell Therapeutics Launches New Corneal Endothelial Cell Therapy COR1
Lineage Cell Therapeuticy announced the expansion of its cell transplant pipeline with the launch of COR1, a new corneal endothelial cell therapy program, in preclinical development for the treatment of corneal endothelial disease. Corneal endothelial disease is a progressive, often hereditary condition where cells on the inner layer of the cornea die, causing cornea swelling and vision loss. Applicable indications for COR1 are expected to include Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy and Bullous Keratopathy. Utilizing Lineage's proprietary cell manufacturing and expansion platform, AlloSCOPE, the Company has manufactured "off the shelf" corneal endothelial cells with identity, morphological, and functional characteristics which meet initial internal criteria and support further development. Lineage plans to advance this new product candidate into preclinical testing and will provide additional developmental updates on the COR1 program as they become available. "Corneal endothelial disease is natural next application of our platform. Millions of people are candidates for corneal transplants for which today there is only one donor for every 70 diseased eyes globally. The current supply of CEnC's from cadaveric sources is further limited by the low availability of organ donors, as well as by inconsistent yield and quality. We believe we are well positioned to produce and provide a consistent and "off-the-shelf" allogeneic source of CEnC's by applying our proprietary AlloSCOPE platform and our development expertise from the OpRegen program to this new ophthalmology program," stated Brian Culley, CEO. "Importantly, CEnC therapy from cadaveric sources has already been approved in Japan to treat corneal endothelial disease, providing evidence for the underlying mechanism of action. Having this clinical and regulatory precedent creates a highly attractive opportunity for us to develop a more consistent and cost-effective product that could address the global shortage of donor cells. We have leveraged the capabilities of our AlloSCOPE platform and a proprietary pluripotent cell line to launch this new, internally-developed and wholly-owned initiative, and have successfully manufactured and characterized corneal endothelial cells that meet our initial attributes for identity and scale. We have elected to advance the COR1 program into preclinical testing and we also believe the recent accomplishments reported with our AlloSCOPE "5D" manufacturing process could be applied to this program to further reduce production costs through large-scale production."
