Cell-based therapeutics specialist ReNeuron Group Plc (LON:RENE) has won a £1.5mln grant to further develop its human retinal progenitor cell (hRPC) therapy which is used to treat blindness-causing, degenerative eye diseases.
The grant has been awarded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, which has backed ReNeuron and its partners before.
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This time the money will co-fund a collaborative programme of work by ReNeuron, the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult, Roslin Cell Therapies and University College London.
They will work together to advance the development of the hRPC cell therapy candidate, which is currently in a phase I/II clinical trial in the US, in patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa.
“We and our collaborators are delighted to have won this latest grant from Innovate UK to develop a suite of robust and reliable release and characterisation assays reflecting the mechanism of action of our hRPC cell therapy candidate,” said ReNeuron’s Sharon Grimster.
“This is a challenging but vital part of the broader commercial manufacturing strategy for the therapy and we are pleased to be working with leading academic and commercial manufacturing partners on this important programme of work.”