Replies to post #71870 on PharmaCyte Biotech Inc (PMCB)

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"We needed to hedge our bet to make sure that we would be the leaders in this space," says Diego Miralles, J&J's global head of innovation i

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Sound familiar? Concordia might find this interesting

ViaCyte got started 16 years ago, just as the heyday of stem cell R&D was getting started. The company was founded as Novocell, merged with others, then changed its name to ViaCyte in 2010. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has been a key backer over the years as the controversial field inspired hopes for a range of cures involving stem cells. But as is often the case, the initial timelines for advancing the science into the clinic were too ambitious, and the enthusiasm faded in the face of a long, hard slog in the lab.

There's nothing unusual about that, though. Every big new drug R&D advance has started with tremendous excitement, then waned as years of hard work had to be done to test the technology and slowly inch toward human studies, says Miralles. But ViaCyte and J&J have made real progress.