A pivotal year for stem-cell investing
Commentary: Upcoming elections, Glaxo deal could spur the sector
By Scott Austin
Last update: 5:43 p.m. EST Dec. 12, 2007Print E-mail RSS Disable Live
Quotes
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Ten years from now, if doctors are
successfully treating cancer patients with stem cells, 2007 may be
considered a pivotal year in the drug-discovery process.
On Monday, a joint press release from GlaxoSmithKline PLC
(GSK:GlaxoSmithKlin
Pharmaceuticals touting a development deal largely went unnoticed.
But as VentureWire pointed out, the agreement represents the largest
bet on a cancer stem-cell startup by a large pharmaceutical company.
A step further, it capped a year that has seen Big Pharma finally
beginning to endorse stem-cell research, no longer leaving it to
private investors and academic laboratories.
GlaxoSmithKline is investing several million dollars and handing over
some extra cash to OncoMed, while placing on the table up to $1.4
billion in potential milestone payments if the startup can find a way
to develop and commercialize a promising treatment method that
targets cancerous stem cells to treat solid tumors. There will also
be royalty payments on any collaborative product sales. That's ample
motivation for a 3-year-old startup that has so far raised more than
$50 million from venture-capital firms.
Without getting too technical, OncoMed's technology focuses on the
small amount of adult cancer stem cells -- not the controversial
embryonic stem cells generating headlines -- that are believed to
compose less than 2% to 3% of the cells in a solid tumor. But
research suggests these are the cells that enable breast, brain and
other cancers to recur and spread even after they've met
chemotherapy.
The discovery several years ago of these bad actors and their role in
tumors was considered a major breakthrough in cancer research.
Latterell Venture Partners found the research compelling, and
realized that if researchers could figure out a suitable way to
extinguish these cancer stem cells without harming normal stem cells,
they could defeat cancers -- and make a fortune. So Redwood City,
Calif.-based OncoMed was formed in 2004 based on technology developed
in the labs of the University of Michigan.
OncoMed brought in prominent venture firms Morgenthaler Ventures,
U.S. Venture Partners and Vertical Group, and later added other big
names like Adams Street Partners, Bay Partners and DeNovo Ventures.
Other startups are now in the game, too, developing different methods
for treating cancer and other health problems using stem cells. Two
weeks ago, Seattle-based Fate Therapeutics raised a $12 million
Series A round from Arch Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners,
Polaris Venture Partners and Venrock to develop small molecule drugs
by "reprogramming" adult stem cells into acting in an embryonic-like
state. This innovative technique avoids using actual human embryos, a
technique fraught with political and ethical issues.
One of Fate's aims is to target cancers, such as pancreatic and colon
cancer. Fate already has one compound in late-stage preclinical
development and plans to launch trials for an undisclosed cancer
indication sometime in 2008. "You have to ask yourself, is this hype
or is there something there?" Fate co-founder Randall Moon asked in
an interview with VentureWire. "Well, we have the biology and we have
the chemistry."
The top pharmaceutical firms are starting to believe it's more than
just hype, too. Over the years they've shied away from stem cells,
reluctant to commit to an area without proven science, clinical
success or viable business models. Now, with better scientific
evidence, they're even starting to engage with less-advanced, and
highly controversial, embryonic stem-cell research.
In October, GlaxoSmithKline teamed with two of Europe's other biggest
drugmakers, AstraZeneca (AZN:astrazeneca) is a big investor in
embryonic stem-cell developer Novocell, leading both the startup's
$20 million Series B round in 2006 and a $25 million Series C round
in July. About a 30-minute drive away in New Jersey is Merck & Co.
(MRK:Merck & Co., Inc
MRK 59.72, -0.68, -1.1%) , which along with a few other drugmakers
signed a licensing agreement earlier this year with U.K.-based Stem
Cell Sciences to experiment with a mouse neural stem-cell technology.
Scientific and commercial progress on embryonic stem-cell research
will continue to accelerate if politicians open up the federal
coffers. President Bush vetoed a bill that would have eased
restraints, but the bill's strong backing by a Democratic-led
Congress may encourage the next president in 2009 to lift
restrictions. That would be a boon to the sector, and encourage the
big pharmaceutical companies, which have enormous lobbying ties to
the federal government, to get off the sidelines.
It's going to need some prodding from venture capitalists as well. Of
the more than $3 billion in venture-capital funds expected to go into
health-care companies this year -- what will be the largest amount on
record -- I could only find roughly $60 million in venture capital
going into stem-cell companies in 2007. And $37 million of that went
to Fate and Novocell. A large development deal like the OncoMed-Glaxo
one is enticing to VCs, and it will likely jolt more investment in
this area.
In the end, it's going to take a startup like OncoMed -- or some of
the small public stem-cell companies like Geron Corp. (GERN:Geron
Corporation STEM 1.82, +0.01, +0.6%) -- to change current views by
proving it's financially feasible to use stem cells to tackle major
diseases.
If 2007 is the year big pharmaceutical companies got serious with
experimentation of stem-cell therapies, 2008 may be the year they
begin to embrace these therapies in their own pipelines.
Visit the VentureWire site for more information.
Scott Austin is an assistant managing editor at Dow Jones who
oversees VentureWire, a daily publication covering venture capital
and start-up companies.
http://www.marketwa
year/story.aspx?
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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