ViaCyte purchase puts Vertex in driver’s seat on stem cells for diabetes

The first big biotech development here was that Vertex Pharmaceuticals acquired Semma in 2019. Compared to stem cell biotechs, Vertex is huge. It had more than $4 billion in revenue in 2019. They have various types of products in development and aren’t just focused on cell therapies.

The experimental cell therapy for diabetes is named VX-880. From the company:

“VX-880 is an investigational allogeneic stem cell-derived, fully differentiated, insulin-producing islet cell therapy manufactured using proprietary technology. VX-880 is being evaluated for patients who have T1D with impaired hypoglycemic awareness and severe hypoglycemia. VX-880 has the potential to restore the body’s ability to regulate glucose levels by restoring pancreatic islet cell function, including glucose-responsive insulin production. VX-880 is delivered by an infusion into the hepatic portal vein and requires maintenance immunosuppressive therapy to protect the islet cells from immune rejection.”

From 2019 forward without Semma independently in the mix, the focus was more on Vertex and ViaCyte in this space. Both their approaches to cell therapy for diabetes have faced challenges and could have unique advantages. Again, one could consider this healthy competition.

However, perhaps the giant Vertex might be hard for the much smaller ViaCyte to compete with moving forward? The question has become moot.

ViaCyte to also become part of Vertex

Here’s the potentially game-changing headline from Fierce Biotech: Vertex absorbs ViaCyte and its stem cell-based diabetes treatment for $320M, clearing out competition.

So now Vertex will own all that was both ViaCyte and Semma.

Will this yield synergism?

Perhaps the Semma pipeline of beta cells can benefit from ViaCyte’s capsule technology. That may be a key factor in the acquisition.

Positive synergism with big resources?

Hopefully this will lead to synergism.

But what does the future hold for ViaCyte’s pancreatic precursor cell approach?

One concern is that Vertex may opt to only proceed with one of these two main cellular approaches. Since Melton, who has focused for ages on the beta cell approach, is now a Vertex leader after leaving Harvard, it’s possible that the ViaCyte cell approach could be sidelined in favor of the beta cells.

I don’t know that there’s enough data to narrow the focus at this point to only one of the two. That possibility of a narrowed focus has risks.

On the other hand, Vertex has big resources to drive stem cells for diabetes. It also seems clear to me that Vertex is incredibly engaged in this pipeline, which is great. Could Vertex pursue both approaches and trials? Probably not, but we’ll see.

Vertex recently made headlines with news of one patient infused with their cellular product becoming free of needing insulin injections. To me this infusion approach with no capsule seems like a long shot. There was also a recent FDA hold on the Vertex’s VX-880, but it has been released.

Looking ahead

I also wonder about cost of a potential future treatment.

Current standard long-term care for diabetics is very costly so we have to think about this cellular approach in that context. A cell therapy could be a cost saver overall. A safe and effective therapy is also likely to be covered by insurance.

I can realistically imagine an exciting future where type I diabetics have fresh sets of 2-6 pancreatic cellular capsules implanted subcutaneously every five years or so, which keeps their blood sugar effectively controlled. That’s the bold vision here and it could be achieved in a decade.

Let’s hope that the cell therapy for diabetes clinical research space remains vibrant.

References and notes

• Vertex trial listing on its stem cell product for diabetes, VX-880.
• Note that some stem cell clinics are selling and certain researchers are studying other cell therapies for diabetes including especially MSCs, but to me these don’t make much sense so far.
• It’s also notable that the term “stem cell” therapies for diabetes doesn’t necessarily mean that stem cells will be directly infused into patients. Rather, stem cell-derived pancreatic cells seem the more promising way to go and are still considered “stem cell therapies”.