A Type 1 diabetes cure through promising stem cell treatment is currently in the clinical trial stage and could eliminate blood glucose monitor and insulin injections, according to
Fortune magazine.
ViaCyte Inc., the company conducting the clinical trial, announced Thursday it was joining forces with Janssen Biotech Inc. to help boost its work in stem cell treatment for Type 1 diabetes. Fortune said the therapy includes implanting a capsule with insulin-producing cells from embryonic stem cells under the skin of patients suffering from diabetes.
If the clinical trials are successful, the stem cell treatment could be available in several years with a similar treatment for Type 2 diabetes to follow, according to
The Associated Press.
Fortune said the implanted capsule essentially acts as an artificial pancreas, making insulin in diabetic patients.
Derek Rapp, president of JDRF, formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, said in a
ViaCyte statement that the stem cell therapy could make a difference in the quality of treatment and management for diabetes patients.
"JDRF has been a long time, proud supporter of the work that ViaCyte is doing to transform the way we treat Type 1 diabetes," said Rapp. "The recent clinical data, while preliminary, are encouraging and move us closer to our goal of a world without Type 1 diabetes."
ViaCyte said its work with Janssen, part of Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, and consolidating assets of Janssen's BetaLogics group, will help make advances in the stem cell treatments.
"For more than a decade BetaLogics and ViaCyte have been independently working toward a stem cell-derived therapy for diabetes," said Paul Laikind, president of ViaCyte.
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