Innovations in healthcare helps solving health challenges
By Van Pham February 3, 2021 | 06:40 pm GMT+7
Bayer's breakthrough innovations in healthcare could significantly help patients suffering from conditions that remain difficult to treat.
"The biomedical and technological revolution transforming healthcare at an unprecedented pace is taking place now", Stefan Oelrich, board member and president of Bayer AG's Pharmaceuticals Division, said at virtual Pharma Media Day on Jan. 13.
Under the theme "Transforming Healthcare. Transforming Bayer," the event was attended by speakers from Bayer, its partners and leading experts. The event addressed several worldwide healthcare challenges, and breakthrough innovations in the areas of cell and gene therapy, and digital health.
Genetic diseases caused by faulty genes appear in almost every cell in a body, making them nearly impossible to tackle via standard medicine methods. For patients suffering from genetic disorders, treatment was limited to alleviating the symptoms.
Cell and gene therapies have the potential to shift the paradigm of treatment to cure the diseases. Based on this, Bayer’s development portfolio of cell and gene therapies comprises seven advanced assets in different stages of clinical development. These are focused on multiple therapeutic areas with high unmet need, like neurodegenerative, neuromuscular and cardiovascular indications, with leading programs in Pompe disease, Parkinson’s disease, hemophilia A, and congestive heart failure.
Bayer has just established a new Cell and Gene Therapy Platform. This platform steers Bayer’s strategy in the area and orchestrates all activities along the value chain providing an innovation ecosystem for all partners, including BlueRock Therapeutics and Asklepios BioPharmaceutical (AskBio), two companies fully owned by Bayer but independently operated.
BlueRock Therapeutics recently announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had cleared their Investigational New Drug application to proceed with a Phase I study in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease. This will be the first trial in the United States to study pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons in patients with Parkinson's disease and a big step forward for the stem cell field.