RegMed XB Global Launch

Growth towards a 'worldwide-consortium' accelerates healing for the chronically ill

RegMed XB is working on new scaling up in Europe and the US

RegMed XB (Regenerative Medicine Crossing Borders) is an international public-private organisation that pursues solutions for patients with kidney failure, type 1 diabetes and osteoarthritis with a target research budget of 250 million euros. RegMed XB wants to accelerate the long road to healing and aims to create new, affordable health solutions. The Dutch-Flemish institute, which brings together the strengths of hundreds of top researchers, doctors and entrepreneurs, is therefore engaging in serious discussion in the USA. 24th and 25th of October they organize a conference-day in Boston specifically with American entrepreneurs, administrators and top researchers from among others Wyss, Harvard and California.

New industry - Research in the relatively young science of regenerative medicine is promising, but also time consuming and expensive. The researchers are convinced that in the next 10 years they will be able to take great steps towards healing kidney failure, type 1 diabetes and osteoarthritis. At the same time, an industry will have to develop that can produce the new complex techniques (including stem cell therapy) on a large scale. RegMed XB Director Prof. Marianne van der Steen: 'Whether we will be able to go from care to cure depends on scaling up and development of this new industry for regenerative medicine. It will be able to bring the new health care solutions onto the market at an affordable price so that hundreds of millions of patients around the world can actually benefit from them. For widespread grassroots diseases, you don't want expensive medicines for the happy few. RegMed XB already has dozens of large and small businesses, but we are looking for more companies to join forces'.

Streamlined research - Researchers and doctors from the universities and university medical centres in Utrecht, Leiden, Eindhoven, Maastricht and Leuven are already working very closely together in RegMed XB. RegMed XB-founder Prof. Clemens van Blitterswijk: ‘In RegMed XB we use a business-like model. Each of the 3 current projects has a leader who works step-by-step on research objectives and directs researchers from other institutions. This is how you work efficiently and each party will get involved in this very versatile and complex research and solve his or her own piece of the puzzle. Time gain is in the interest of the patient'. Tom Oostrom, director of the Dutch Kidney Foundation -who is a party to RegMed XB with the Rheumatism Fund, Diabetes Research Netherlands and the Diabetes Foundation - : 'Unique about RegMed XB is that it puts the patient perspective first and works specifically on solutions for them. Patients with kidney failure, osteoarthritis or diabetes type 1 have the same syndrome all over the world. It would be a great boost if health funds in other countries were to step into this promising project'.

New ecosystem with great opportunities - Van der Steen: 'If we really want to accelerate consistently, more is needed. We will have to grow towards a new ecosystem for regenerative medicine: a community of closely cooperating industry, research institutions, governments, investors and patient organisations. These close links together form an integrated ecosystem that will be cross-borders. Complex investigations and long-term projects are involved, so new risk capital injections are constantly needed. In order to be able to achieve this in a responsible manner, these are international public-private consortia. Let us not forget that this system offers great opportunities: hundreds of millions of patients can heal and live longer; the cost of curing is lower than that of sustained care. In addition, a new industry is emerging which will also be of great economic importance. These are precisely the reasons why we are now talking about new scaling up in the United States'.

Dutch Press contact: Marcel Hammink 06+31 (0)6 53213917