Cell Therapy’s Tendoncel, a topical gel for the treatment of severe tendon injuries, has successfully completed its phase II. The optimistic results from the clinical trial add to those of the company’s leading product, released last week. The UK company has finally started to collect strong clinical data to support its approach.
Cell Therapy Limited was created in 2002 by a couple of notorious founders: Sir Martin Evans, Nobel Prize in Physiology, and Ajan Reginald, ex-Global Head of Emerging Technologies at Roche. With such well-recognized parents, the expectations regarding the company were high. However, the achievements took a long time to arrive. The companies succeeded in raising almost one million euros by crowdfunding, but the clinical victories only came very recently.
Last week, the Cardiff-based company presented the data of a positive phase II of Heartcel, the company’s lead candidate indicated for heart failure. Now, Cell Therapy released its results from another successful phase II of Tendoncel, for severe tendon injury repair.
The drug candidate is a regenerative allogeneic gel that incorporates a unique combination of platelet growth factors in a cellulose-derived gel, which consequently controls growth factor release. The trial endpoint is improvement in tendon injury, assessed with two validated metrics DASH (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand) and PRTEE (Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation). In both indicators, the Tendoncel displayed notable results, with an improvement by around 70%.
Moreover, Tendoncel has a great advantage compared to injectable treatments because, apart of the clinical improvement in the tendon injury, it has the benefit of a painless topical application.
As the products are getting closer to the market, Cell Therapy is now seeking collaboration for their upcoming commercialization. Being backed by a Nobel laureate and with these excellent clinical results, the UK biotech will have probably no problems to find a partner.