Altucell, Inc.
Altucell, Inc. is a cellular engineering and biotech company backed by sound research and science focused on fulfilling a large `unmet need` in cell, molecular and regenerative therapy for treatment of Diabetes and other autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. The company`s proprietary and unique technology overcomes the major barriers to transplantation by a novel strategy utilizing patented micro-encapsulation technology, enabling a transplantable, cell-based therapy that avoids detection and rejection by the immune system. Altucell for the Treatment of Autoimmune and Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Medical Research
- Market Focus:
- Globally (various continents)
Mission
Develop improved treatments specifically for diabetes and other chronic diseases using a novel type of therapeutic: implanted cells shielded by proprietary biomaterials from immune attack and the foreign body response (fibrosis) and inflammation.
Vision
Apply Altucell’s cell engineering and delivery system-based platform to re-program and control dynamic protein delivery for the long-term treatment of debilitating diseases.
Background
The company, and its collaborative relationships with leaders in the field, developed because of a personal commitment of founder Gary Harlem: the promise made to seek a cure for his son diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. After extensive research, traveling throughout the world, Harlem found a practical, proficient and logical protocol from Italy supported by efficacy studies and promising results to remedy this debilitating disease.
Market Opportunity
The time is right for new therapies and cures:
- Multiple blockbuster drugs have been launched in the past ten years for other 
autoimmune diseases 

- Improving outcomes is being reimbursed, including adherence methods, incentive 
models, opening up for platform technologies 

- Focus on immunology and regenerative medicine, areas where platform technologies could be expanded into other autoimmune and chronic diseases
- Multiple examples of higher than above ROI in the life sciences diabetes space: Novo Nordisk, Lilly, Minimed, Animas, Dexcom, Insulet, etc.
Many patients of numerous diseases can benefit from cell-based therapeutics, but fibrosis has presented a barrier to the success of these cell-based approaches. Altucell provides a unique, controllable and dose-adjustable approach to delivering protein therapeutics that will not trigger fibrosis in the body. This allows for the long-term treatment of many debilitating diseases without the need for immune suppression (rejection drugs) that is traditionally associated with allogeneic and xenogeneic cell therapies.
Unlike gene therapies, our proprietary cells are engineered ex vivo to produce high levels of protein at a controlled rate without the risk of introducing a gene construct into a patient’s own cells which has resulted in serious safety concerns with gene therapies.
The benefits of Altsulin/Altustem result in a superior product that is safer, durable and can be re-dosed, if necessary. Our encapsulated stem cells approach is a new modality that allows us to create programmable and controllable systems to deliver therapeutics with greater precision than those technologies that rely on manipulating a patient’s own genome.