Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Biotech Inc. is showing interest in stem cell therapy delivered to the heart via a catheter.
Janssen is providing an upfront payment of $12.5 million related to Capricor Therapeutics Inc.'s CAP-1002 therapy under evaluation in patients who have suffered a large myocardial infarction, Capricor announced Monday.
Capricor would be eligible to receive up to $325 million in additional payments from Janssen if Phase II clinical trials of the CAP-1002 pan out, and Janssen opts to sign an exclusive license agreement for the therapy. (Janssen has 60 days to decide on the agreement after learning the trial results.)
CAP-1002 is Capricor's lead product candidate. It is a proprietary allogeneic adult stem cell therapy for the treatment of heart disease. Derived from donor heart tissue, the cells are expanded in the laboratory using a specialized process and then introduced directly into a patient's heart via infusion into a coronary artery using standard cardiac catheterization techniques.
Some experts speculate that such stem cell therapy, coupled with left ventricular assist devices, might be the future method of choice for treating damaged hearts.
There is even the potential to grow entirely new hearts using a "ghost heart" framework-a method pioneered by Doris Taylor, director of regenerative medicine research at the Texas Heart Institute. Taylor used to be based in Minnesota, where a company called Miromatrix has been seeking to commercialize her methods.
