Unmet Medical Needs, Positive Regulatory Frameworks and Increased Investments Support Continued Stem Cell Research

Despite lingering ethical, legal and social concerns, a positive shift in government attitude together with encouraging public and private funding environments across several major healthcare markets worldwide is poised to support stem cell-based research.

Increased R&D funding both from governments that have recognised the immense potential of stem cell applications in medical treatments as well as from venture capital firms are supporting this nascent market.

"An ageing global population is a key factor driving the development of medical technologies, that can provide rapid, effective and economical treatment," notes Frost & Sullivan Team Leader and Industry Analyst Himanshu Parmar. "There are also several areas of unmet medical needs, which need to be addressed through innovative technological developments such as stem cells therapies."

Stem cells represent a promising solution to addressing several unmet medical needs, particularly neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and cardiovascular conditions. Other potential patient target groups include diabetics and those requiring treatments for spinal repair. Organ transplants are another prospective application area with efforts focused on tissue engineering for use in bone implants and cartilage regeneration.

Stem cells offer a very promising treatment solution for genetic diseases. And with researchers having begun to obtain insights into stem cell differentiation mechanisms, understanding of the possible treatment potential of stem cells are expected to rise, paving the way for more potent therapies.

However, even with significant scientific progress, stem cell-based therapies remain in the pre-clinical stage. For a variety of reasons - clinical, legal and financial - pharmaceutical companies are adopting a cautious approach towards realising the commercial potential of stem cell-based discoveries. The major challenge is to successfully complete human studies for these products in order to launch them in the market.

For pharmaceutical companies, stem cells contribute to drug discovery through their application in finding novel drug targets and through the development of new technology platforms. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies will increasingly explore the different methods in which stem cells can be used in the drug discovery phase to accelerate the discovery of novel drug molecules.

"Aggressive research and development efforts coupled with better funding opportunities will provide impetus to stem cell research," says Mr. Parmar. "Enabling alliance strategies will also aid in market advancement. Collaborations between biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with academic institutes and research centres will help overcome the technological challenges associated with the development of the stem cell-based therapies."

Current Clinical Applications and Trials of Stem Cell-Based Therapies is part of the Pharma Biotech Subscription, which also includes research in the following markets: European Vaccines Market Analysis, European CNS Therapeutics Market, Drug Delivery for Diabetes-Market and Technologies, and Pharma-Biotech Alliance Management-Critical Success Factors. All research included in subscriptions provides detailed market opportunities and industry trends and is evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews are available to the press.

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