Sana Biotechnology Inc skyrocketed over 200% on Wednesday after unveiling positive results from its first in-human diabetes trial.
No safety issues were observed four weeks after transplanting Sana’s UP421 allogeneic primary islet cell therapy into a type 1 diabetes patient, a statement said.
No immunosuppression was used, Sana added, with results showing pancreatic beta cells survived and continued to produce insulin.
“In Type 1 diabetes, a person’s immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells,” principal study investigator Per-Ola Carlsson explained.
Sana has developed its hypoimmune technology in a bid to treat diabetes through engineered cells and prevent the need for the likes of insulin injections.
“Today’s data, when combined with progress elsewhere in the field, provide real hope that a scalable, curative treatment for patients with Type 1 diabetes, meaning normal blood glucose with no insulin injections or immunosuppression, is possible,” Carlsson added.
Chief executive Steve Harr noted the study had achieved its goal of identifying no safety risks, alongside survival, function and immune detection evasion of the transplanted cells.
“As far as we are aware, this is the first study showing survival of an allogeneic transplant with no immunosuppression or immune-protective device in a fully immune competent individual,” he said.
Shares jumped 203.7% to US$5.01 on Wednesday.