“Chinese pharmaceutical market is growing rapidly and is now a key market for western companies”

Belgium based Bone Therapeutics recently announced its entry in China through partnership with Link Health and Pregene for ALLOB, its off-the-shelf, Allogeneic Osteoblastic Cell Therapy platform. In an email interaction with BioSpectrum, Stefanos Theoharis, Chief Business Officer (CBO), Bone Therapeutics, United Kingdom tells us more about the company, their strategy for China and the impact of COVID-19 on their firm. Edited excerpts;

- Stefanos Theoharis

Could you give us an overview of Bone Therapeutics?

At Bone Therapeutics we develop highly innovative products for patients with high unmet medical needs in the areas of orthopedics and inflammation.

Our lead product, JTA-004 is a novel and highly differentiated product, currently in Phase III clinical trials for knee osteoarthritis. This is an indication where patients are clearly underserved by current treatments. We have so far seen extremely encouraging results in previous trials and as a result we feel confident that JTA-004 can make a real difference to those patients.

Our allogeneic (donor-derived), off-the-shelf, stem cell platform is our major focus and a significant value driver for the company. The first product from this platform is ALLOB, which is about to commence a Phase 2b clinical trial. We are continuing to build on this innovative platform to develop new differentiated products for more indications where patients have limited options available to them, such as inflammation, always with a focus on efficacy and safety.

We are building partnerships with companies that can help us accelerate our route to market and are always on the look for new technologies that can help us remain at the cutting edge of innovation.

How is ALLOB different from existing therapies?

Stem cell therapies and the field of regenerative medicine have been exponentially growing in recent years. Our mission is to be one of the leading companies in the field, by developing products tailored to the specific features of each indication we treat.