India's Stempeutics says China IP office grants process patent on stem cell ischemia candidate

Cipla-backed Stempeutics, an Indian advanced clinical stage biotech company based in Bangalore, said it is the first company in the world to be granted a process patent by the State Intellectual Property Office of China for a stem cell drug treatment based on pooling technology that could potentially be used in the treatment of critical limb ischemia.

The process patent for its novel stem-cell based drug Stempeucel follows a March designation by the European Medicines Agency has granted Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product classification for the therapy that could be used to treat patients with diabetes that suffer from the condition, the company said.

India and China have the highest number of diabetic patients in the world.

Stempeutics said it has submitted its application to the Drug Controller General of India to obtain marketing authorization approval for Stempeucel.

Stempeutics has been intermittently in the news, but little is known about the company. The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) website did have the therapy listed under an application number.

It was founded by Manipal Education and Medical Group in 2006 and later entered into a strategic alliance with Cipla in 2009 with a goal to develop novel stem cell drugs addressing major unmet medical needs with an India first global next approach.

It operates in a treatment space that includes efforts by Sanofi ($SNY) in 2010 and more recently Abbott Laboratories ($ABT) through the purchase of IDEV Technologies.

- here's the Stempeutics release and the SIPO listing