TOKYO, Japan: The Japanese Government today conditionally approved the commercialisation of two regenerative medicine products prepared from induced pluripotent stem cells, marking the world’s first, Kyodo News agency reported.
The two iPS-derived drugs are ReHeart, developed by Cuorips Inc. to treat patients with severe heart failure stemming from ischemic cardiomyopathy, and Amchepry, produced by Sumitomo Pharma Co. and Racthera Inc. to treat Parkinson’s disease.
Treatment using the drugs is expected to begin as early as this summer.
ReHeart is expected to cost over 10 million yen (approx. USD63,500 or RM260,000), and Amchepry will also be expensive.
Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS, were generated by Kyoto University professor, Shinya Yamanaka, who announced the generation of mouse iPS cells in 2006 and human iPS cells in 2007.
He won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012. – BERNAMA-KYODO
