REGENERATIVE MEDECINE – AN ALTERNATIVE TO LIVER TRANSPLANTS
In Nantes, on 9th December 2019, GoLiver Therapeutics, a start-up and member of Atlanpole Biotherapies specialising in the development of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products, announced the signature of a memorandum of understanding with the Paul-Brousse Hospital (AP-HP – Public Assistance – Paris Hospitals, Villejuif, France) that specialises in treating hepato-biliary pathologies, and that has already conducted clinical trials on advanced liver therapies. This memorandum of understanding aims to design and set up phase I/IIa clinical trials for the treatment of acute liver failure.
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON REPAIRING DAMAGE TO THE LIVER
The study’s primary endpoints will be to demonstrate that the GoLiver Therapeutics treatment is well tolerated and to provide initial proof of its efficacy in humans in order to alleviate the shortage of transplantable livers in terms both of the numbers of organs available and of providing transplants within the required times. The first therapeutic indication to be studied will be acute liver failure, after which the trials will be extended to include other diseases of the liver such as decompensated cirrhosis.
Tuan Nguyen, President of GoLiver Therapeutics states, “We are delighted to be partnering the hepato-biliary unit at the Paul Brousse Hospital, the leading liver transplant centre in France (around 1,701 transplants in 2018) and third-ranked in Europe. Our collaboration with the hospital’s organ transplant specialists will allow us to design and set up the clinical trials scheduled to begin within the next four years”.
Professor Didier Samuel, Medical Director of the liver transplant unit at the Paul-Brousse Hospital continues “GoLiver Therapeutics is set to embark on a major new phase of its development and we are very proud to be working alongside them to provide assistance with the specifics of setting up a clinical trial. The advanced therapy that the company is proposing promises great benefits to patients presenting with acute liver failure. To have access to an unlimited in vitro source of hepatocytes without having to use donor livers would genuinely revolutionise the organ transplant sector. Particularly as, in the long term, this suggests the potential for broader therapeutic indications such as cirrhosis, cancers, NASH (Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis otherwise known as fatty liver disease)”.