Orthocell granted US patent for regenerative growth factor production

Orthocell has been granted a patent for its cell factory technology, which it says could produce ‘off-the-shelf’ growth factors for regenerating tissue and bone.

The Perth, Australia-based regenerative medicine firm announced the US patent has been granted earlier this this week, and according to its Managing Director it is a more targeted tissue specific approach for the production of growth factors than what is currently available.

“The IP involves the methods inside the bioreactor to filter concentrate and extract the growth factors,” Paul Anderson told Biopharma-Reporter.

Growth factors stimulate soft tissue and bone regeneration and – in traditional extraction methods - are difficult to isolate from the ‘soup’ of various growth factors and proteins that exist within the body.

Furthermore, Anderson explained, such methods lead to growth factors which are not specific to any tissue type and are not as potent or effective as Orthocell's tissue specific approach, which revolves around the manufacture of growth factors from a ‘factory’ in an ongoing fashion.

“The generation of tissue specific growth factors in a factory or ongoing capability provides for bioactive molecules and proteins to be manufactured in a broader scale, provide for a tissue specific approach and an off-the-shelf solution to potentially mediate a degenerate joint by reducing inflammation and reducing pain and in more acute indications assist in the recovery of the joint and the potential of cartilage formation.”

He continued: “The ‘cell Factory’ is in essence a bioreactor that cultivates the cells, filters the ‘tissue specific growth factor ‘soup’ and enables the non-immunogenic growth factors to be extracted and applied potentially as an off-the-shelf injection for the specific tissue application such as bone, and cartilage.”

The US patent no. 9,220,803B2 is entitled ‘Method of producing components such as Growth factors or extracellular matrix proteins, through cell culture of tissue samples for tissue repair.’