WHAT WE DO
One of the most challenging technological frontiers is the search for ways to mollify the effects of today's most devastating illnesses which affect the heart, liver, kidney, pancreas and other major organs of the human body. Imagine if liver tissue damaged by cirrhosis could be regenerated and repaired? Or that heart muscle tissue damaged by a heart attack could be repaired? And if the devastating side effects of chemotherapy could be substantially reduced?
Imagine the benefits to humanity and medical science. Millions of people, in the U.S. alone, currently suffer from these maladies with thousands of new cases being diagnosed daily. Organ and bone marrow transplant lists are long, over 100,000 people, and the chances of finding donor matches are slim (only 20,000 transplants per year). The Center for Disease Control reports more than a million new cancer- related diagnoses each year; over 35% are breast, colon, and prostate cancer. Nearly 50,000 kidney and 17,000 liver transplants are required each year, but only 25% of them will be performed. Even though many will not receive treatment or transplants, the patients and the healthcare industry will spend more than $10 billion to fight the effects related to these conditions. This does not include the 1.2 million heart attacks (myocardial infarctions) occurring annually.
What if there were a procedure that would decrease the need for transplants and could reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation used to kill cancer cells?
Miraculously, the answers are within our reach due to advances in the use of adult stem cells.
Adult Stem Cell Research Advancements
Research in adult stem cell therapy (NOT embryonic) has shown more than possibilities; it has shown that specific adult stem cells are in fact capable of tissue repair and regeneration, as well as a reduction of the side effects from chemotherapy and radiation. In thousands of clinical tests in which blood was reintroduced after chemotherapy, a measurable difference, of the speed in which the body reproduced the oxygen carrying red blood cells as well as the infection fighting white blood cells, has been documented.
The Regenetech® Model
Regenetech® is a biotech company established in March of 2002, located in Houston, Texas, whose research efforts involve the extraction, cellXpansion™ (multiplication) and reintroduction of adult stems cells from and into the same patient's body (autologous).
Extraction and reintroduction of adult stem cells is commonplace in today's healthcare environment. The key to the Company's strategy and success is its proprietary method (patent applied for) of cellXpansion of adult stem cells. The seemingly insurmountable problem that all researchers face when trying to expand stem cells is enabling the cells to maintain their three-dimensional geometry, their cell-to-cell support, and their cell-to-cell geometry during the expansion process. If this geometry and support is not present, the cells will die or become deformed and may become contaminants, if not poisons, in the expanded cell mix used for transfusion to effect the regeneration of blood cells (elimination of chemotherapy side effects) or regeneration (organs such as liver, pancreas, heart). Through its proprietary method of expansion utilizing simulated weightlessness, Regenetech® has shown the ability to constantly maintain the needed cell geometry and support. Regenetech®'s initial research has shown cellXpansion results of better than a 10 fold adult stem cell increase in numbers.
The Company has the exclusive rights to thirteen (13) patents involving cell expansion in a simulated weightlessness environment granted under a license agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its technology transfer program. These cell expansion patents involve the use of a device, patented by NASA, which provides simulated weightlessness right here on earth. In addition to the licensed patents, Regenetech® has applied for 73 additional patents in its own name for the expansion of blood cells to be used in Tissue Repair, Tissue Regeneration and Reduction of Chemotherapy side effects. In addition, Regenetech® expects to apply for an additional one-hundred (100) patents covering its technology.
Perhaps 90% of all stem cell research today is being conducted with embryonic stem cells. While this could be considered a competitive technology, we believe it will be tied up in moral, ethical, and legal conflicts for many years. As a result, it will not be a competitor to adult stem cell research (there are not enough embryos for the patient population). Also, while cord blood research does not have the moral, ethical, and legal problems, it presents a major donor-recipient matching problem, so we do not consider it to be a commercial competitor to our work either. While both of these areas of research may realize success, Regenetech® will step in without the problems and capture the commercially significant market.
Through a novel business model, using NASA's Patent and Technology Transfer Program and Sponsored Research Agreements (SRAs), Regenetech® was able to accomplish this research in the first year with a budget of just $100,000. The Company determined that the cost of operating a private research lab was approximately $1 million per primary investigative scientist which does not include the initial cost of the build out for an approved lab that currently runs $800 per square foot. Therefore we found that through the use of SRAs (Sponsored Research Agreements), with prestigious institutions, we can accomplish our goals at a ratio of greater than 2 to 1 for dollars allocated for research giving our shareholders more research for their invested monies. In the past we have used M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, which completed the first phase of our research in January of 2003. We are currently negotiating with researchers at several major medical institutions and universities for pre-clinical and clinical trials.
The further Regenetech® develops the intellectual property the sooner commercialization occurs and generally the greater the value. It becomes a business decision as to the trade off of development versus value. In situations where additional development (at a cost) may increase the licensing fees and royalties, the Company will evaluate if shareholder monies are better spent on the development of the existing patent or research on a new intellectual property. While this is the basic licensing model in the industry today, each company has slightly different versions. We are aware that as the industry evolves our model will also need to evolve.
The Company is in the process of contacting major pharmaceutical and biotech companies and has thus far received positive results. Regenetech®'s management believes that the Company will be cash flow positive and profitable within two years.
The Company is led by an experienced management team and will continue to maintain a considerably lean operation even after profitability.