Cure for type one diabetes getting closer, London company says

Type one diabetes, or insulin-dependent diabetes, has seen a stark increase over the last decade. Researchers at London, Ont. bio-tech company Sernova have been diligently working on a cure.

“We started researching into the cell therapy approach to provide a functional cure for type one diabetes back in 2009. So we've been working on this for many years,” said Sernova President and CEO, Philip Toleikis.

Sernova just released data from its first two cohorts of patients treated with a proprietary cell pouch technology and islet cells.

“We now have five long -term type one diabetic patients that have been taking insulin injections on a daily basis for their entire lives [and] are now off of insulin with our total technology, and are in our clinical trial,” he said.

Toleikis said the device is no larger than a business card, and as thin as a piece of gauze, gets inserted deep under the skin.

“The patient can't feel the device in there, and when we place this device in the body, it's porous. So it fills in with highly vascularized tissue, and then we can come in and put the therapeutic cells in. So we are basically making a little mini pancreas that is new to put these cells in,” he explained.

The next phase will be clinical trials on a much larger scale, in order to produce enough islets. Toleikis said Sernova has partnered with another company.

“That's an important step for us. So we did a deal with a pharmaceutical company called Evotec, whereby they have a process to take a starting ethically derived stem cell from a blood sample and be able to produce fully functional islets for patients,” he said.

Sernova hopes to move into the clinical phase in the U.S., Europe and Canada sometime next year, with the ultimate goal being able to finish the work started in London over 100 years ago.

“Insulin was discovered in London. So we're looking at over time putting out the flame which will show that we have a functional cure for type one diabetes — and this is not a promise. This is real. This is a reality,” said Toleikis.

The company said there is also work being done on a treatment for type two diabetes and other thyroid diseases.