STEMPEUTICS RESEARCH MALAYSIA SDN BHD 

Stempeutics Research Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Stempeutics) is an emerging stem cell company mainly focused on Research, Therapy and Therapeutics in the field of regenerative medicine. The company was awarded the BioNexus status by Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation on 30th October 2007. It is part of Manipal Education & Medical Group which has established the Melaka Manipal Medical College at Melaka, Malaysia. Research at Stempeutics is directed towards acquiring the basic knowledge and understanding of stem cells and its differentiation process required for the development of therapies to treat human diseases. Our goal is to develop cell based therapeutics using human adult mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow. The aim of this kind of cell therapy is to replace, repair or enhance the function of damaged tissues or organs. The stem cells used can originate from the patient (Autologous) or from a healthy donor (Allogenic). The cells may be introduced by various routes into the body and selectively implanted at the site of action.

Therapy:
Stempeutics is establishing a world class operation in Technology Park Malaysia as a central cell processing facility. It will collaborate with several tertiary hospitals in Kuala Lumpur and nearby areas/states for treatment. Focus will also be given to attract more patients from abroad in order to encourage medical tourism. The disease focus is listed below:

1. Peripheral arterial diseases (Limb Ischemia),
2. Acute myocardial infarction,
3. Spinal cord injury,
4. Rheumatoid Arthritis
5. Cerebral Stroke
6. Multiple Sclerosis
7. Bone fracture
8. Avascular necrosis (AVN)
9. Diabetes- Type I
10. Muscular dystrophy
11. Motor neuron disease
12. End stage liver disease and End stage renal disease

Other new diseases will be added year on year after proper research, based on local conditions.

In Phase-I bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells will be used in Autologus mode. It means that bone marrow will be derived from the patients, mesenchymal stem cells will be isolated and cultured appropriately and then transplant at appropriate time to the same patient. The bone marrow is derived from the patient after taking necessary consent in the consent forms as per the ICH-GCP guidelines and the Malaysian Regulations.

However, there are certain diseases such as acute myocardial infarction, cerebral stroke, spinal cord injury and other critical diseases where the stem cells therapy might work better and effectively if stem cells are transplanted at the early stage of disease. Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells is difficult to grow in large quantity in such a short time. Moreover, it is also difficult to aspirate bone marrow from such patients. Even in the case of genetic disorders the use of autologous therapy is not feasible. Most importantly autologous stem cell therapy is quite expensive and may not be affordable to common person. Allogenic approach will be most effective in such diseases and affordable to even common man since mesenchymal stem cells can be grown in large quantities similar to that of biopharmaceuticals in order to reduce the cost.

Therefore in Phase-II, we intend to approach allogenic stem cell therapy so as to make this therapy more affordable and make it available off the shelf. Here patient will be advised to procure a donor from his own family or an unrelated donor who is ready to help the patient by donating his bone marrow. This bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells will be used to other patients if patient has consented for it for larger interest of the society. This will be done again after taking the due consent from the donor & the patient. Needless to mention that mesenchymal stem cells do not express MHC class II antigen and proven to be universal stem cells, do not require HLA match and cannot reject if transplanted allogenically. This way the mesenchymal stem cells can also be grown in large scale.

Research:
Research at Stempeutics operations are within four major categories:

a) Adult mesenchymal stem cells derived from a variety of sources
b) In vitro differentiation of Adult bone marrow stem cells in to various cell types
c) Establishing different Embryonic stem cell lines and
d) Stem Cells isolation and up scaling process

Stempeutics would like to have research collaborative linkages with Malaysian Universities in order to pool the resources by developing research clusters. This can increase the frequency of scientific publications in the peer reviewed journals and increase countries patent portfolio.