[Featured Stock] T&R Biofab Makes Progress in Developing Cell Therapy for Heart Disease... Confirmed Cardiac Tissue Regeneration and Recovery

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] T&R Biofab is showing strong performance.

At 10:41 AM on the 30th, T&R Biofab was trading at 15,650 KRW, up 6.83% from the previous day.

On this day, the 3D bioprinting specialist T&R Biofab announced that it has obtained a Japanese patent for its cardiac disease cell therapy technology using induced pluripotent stem cells.

This technology produces a three-dimensional uniform 100 μm (micrometer, 0.1 mm) cardiac structure (3D micro cardiac spheroid). Because the transplanted cardiac structure is made ultra-small at 100 μm size, it can be applied through a minimally invasive catheter procedure without open-heart surgery.

Preclinical (animal) studies on this technology confirmed that it maintains a high survival rate even in the hypoxic environment during in vivo transplantation, and shows efficacy in regenerating damaged cardiac tissue and restoring function after transplantation.

The only company applying the 3D myocardial cell aggregate technology using induced pluripotent stem cells to cardiac disease clinical applications is Japan’s Company H. Last June, Company H completed a technology licensing (L/O) deal worth 780 billion KRW based on this technology.

T&R Biofab introduced that the patented technology allows long-term cryopreservation in aggregate form, enabling immediate administration to patients with cardiac disease or ischemic chronic heart failure. Furthermore, since it is produced as an ultra-small cardiac structure of 100 μm size, it can be applied to catheters already approved for clinical use without new regulations, allowing rapid clinical trials and commercialization. They emphasized that the ability to transfer both the invention technology and cell resources simultaneously, utilizing cell bank resources, is a major advantage compared to competing technologies.

Chief Technology Officer Jin-Hyung Shim said, "Despite fierce competition in related technologies from domestic companies (Company H) and university research institutes in Japan, the pioneer country of induced pluripotent stem cell technology, we successfully registered the patent." He added, "It is significant that the independent innovation and excellence of T&R Biofab’s technology have been recognized," and "We expect positive results from ongoing patent examinations in the United States, Europe, and China."

T&R Biofab completed domestic patent registration for this technology in 2020. Patent examinations are underway in the United States, Europe, and China. Last year, it was selected for a project under the Pan-Government Regenerative Medicine Program based on related technology. The research and development results were published as a paper in the journal Clinical Translational Medicine (IF 11.492).