First Parkinson's patient receives stem-cell therapy

TOKYO:

A patient has undergone pioneering stem-cell therapy to treat Parkinson's disease, the Japanese drugmaker behind the treatment said on Friday, in a world-first following its conditional approval in the country.

Sumitomo Pharma's treatment involves transplanting millions of induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body, into a patient's brain.

Japanese regulators approved the groundbreaking therapy in March, following a successful clinical trial.

"The first transplant was performed at Kyoto University Hospital in October," the company said on Friday in an earnings press release, without giving further details.

Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects the body's motor system, often causing shaking and other difficulties with movement.

Worldwide, more than 10 million people are estimated to have the illness, according to the Parkinson's Foundation.

Currently available therapies "improve symptoms without slowing or halting the disease progression", it says.

iPS cells are created by inducing mature, already specialised cells to return to a juvenile state.

Under Sumitomo Pharma's treatment, iPS cells from healthy donors are developed into the precursors of dopamine-producing brain cells, which are no longer present in people with Parkinson's.

During a clinical trial, seven patients aged between 50 and 69 each received implants of either five million or 10 million cells on both sides of the brain.