Canadian Patent Office Issues Notice of Allowance To Nutech Mediworld’s Dr. Geeta Shroff For ReoStem Stem Cell Technology

The Canadian Patent Office has awarded a notice of allowance to Dr. Geeta Shroff of Nutech Mediworld for ReoStem, her proprietary stem cell technology. ReoStem is a unique, clinical-stage technology platform for the generation of allogenic stem cells. It covers all stages of cell culture from derivation, expansion, and establishment of cell lines to the preparation of ready-to-use allogenic stem cell products. Canada is the latest country to grant the patent to Dr Shroff for ReoStem technology. She has earlier been granted patents in 78 countries including USA, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Eurasian Union, Africa among others.

The novel technology platform covers the production and clinical use of a subclass of embryonic stem cells call premorula stem cells (PMSC). Below is the snapshot list of inclusions that the patent covers.

• Isolation of stem cells from an early-stage fertilised ovum
• Expansion of the stem cells without the use of any animal products
• Preparation of the stem cells for clinical application
• Storage of stem cells in a ready-to-use form
• Methods and protocols for using stem cells to treat a number of serious medical conditions including spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cerebral palsy, autism, Lyme disease etc.

Established in 1996, Nutech Mediworld is a boutique medical facility, ranked among the best centres in India for regenerative therapy. The company has been developing the ReoStem-based treatments since 1999–2000. To date, PMSCs have been used clinically to treat more than 1,600 patients, principally for neurological conditions such as spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative disorders, cerebral palsy, chronic Lyme disease, brain injuries including stroke, diabetes mellitus, muscular dystrophies, osteoarthritis of the knees, and vision disorders. Nutech Mediworld believes that by focusing on human premorula stem cells (PMSCs), it has developed an approach that tackles many of the challenges faced by other stem cell approaches like human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).

Explaining premorula stem cells, Dr Geeta Shroff, Founder & Medical Director, Nutech Mediworld said,  “PMSCs are essentially devoid of epigenetic imprinting, possess an immune-privileged phenotype, demonstrate genetic stability following the equivalent of more than 6,000 expansions from a single source, and manifest truly elastic pluripotency.”

“ReoStem products are universally applicable since they do not require tissue matching or the coadministration of immunosuppressive drugs. Moreover, they are safe and show no evidence of triggering teratomas, tumours, or immune reactions in recipients following longitudinal studies in more than 15 years of clinical practice”, added Dr Shroff on the universal acceptability of the ReoStem Stem Cell Technology.

As the origin of various diseases is more deeply understood, it is apparent that intervention with traditional pharmaceuticals and the new waves of biological drugs, will not be able to provide comprehensive medical solutions in many cases. Cell therapy is increasingly seen as a viable solution to treat complex and/or unmet medical needs.

Nutech Mediworld is already delivering allogenic cell-based therapeutic treatments with the following ready-to-use products based on ReoStem technology –

• SCT-N, a preparation of stem cells enriched for neuronal progenitor stem cells
• SCT-NX, a preparation enriched for non-neuronal progenitor stem cells

While protocols based on this proprietary technology have been used to treat an extensive range of indications, particularly in the central nervous system field, a parallel focus is also towards the treatment of traditionally incurable lifestyle conditions such as diabetes etc. Nutech Mediworld is now looking for strategic partnerships with licensees to commercialize these products globally.