BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - Celogos and Stem Cell Sciences KK (SCSKK) signed a license agreement covering technologies for myoblast cell implantation to treat stress urinary incontinence.

Celogos, of Paris, has granted SCSKK exclusive rights to commercialize in Japan therapeutic products related to myoblast implantation developed under Celogos' patent and know-how. SCSKK is a joint venture between Stem Cell Sciences Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, and Sosei Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and is based in Kobe, Japan.

Celogos, which specializes in the development of cell-based therapies focused on muscle regeneration, has developed a technology platform called rational cell design (RCD), which makes it possible to isolate muscle precursor cells from biopsies of a patient's muscle. Those precursor cells are grown up using a patented culture process, frozen and then reinjected into the patient at the affected site. The cells then develop into mature muscle cells, repairing the damaged tissue.

That platform is applicable to the development, optimization, production and transplantation of novel cells, and SCSKK, which is developing stem cell technologies for cell therapies, said the Celogos technology will give it a more clinically-advanced product with which to progress, expand and diversify its cell therapy pipeline. According to the president and CEO of SCSKK, Kenzo Nakajima, "the Celogos technologies will facilitate the production of autologous cell transplantation treatments for stress urinary incontinence for women, and urinary incontinence for men after prostatectomy." He added that SCSKK planned to launch a clinical trial in Japan in the first quarter of 2008.

Celogos already is developing its own therapy for urinary incontinence, RCD1, which currently is undergoing Phase I/II clinical trials in France. It hopes to obtain regulatory approval for the product in stress urinary incontinence by 2010. The company also is developing cell therapy products for the treatment of fecal incontinence (RCD2), a rare, genetic ocular myopathy (RCD3) and diseases of the cardiac muscle.

Using its RCD technologies, Celogos has established a complete process for myoblast implantation, from the removal of muscular tissue cells and their isolation and cultivation to the insertion of the cells into the urethral sphincter of urinary incontinence patients. As part of that process, cell separation and cell cultivation are conducted under tight quality control in a GMP-compliant cell processing center.

Celogos, which was founded in 2001, was acquired by the French pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma in 2005.