S.Biomedics said Monday that the patent regarding the “method for differentiating and manufacturing dopamine neuronal cells from stem cells” has won permission to be registered in Canada, following Japan, Australia, and the U.S.

The patent is related to S. Biomedics’ core business and a key technology for developing cell therapy for Parkinson's disease. The company said that patent registrations are also in Europe, China, Hong Kong, India, and Russia.

The technology develops cell therapies for Parkinson's disease, as it produces midbrain dopaminergic neural progenitor cells at a high rate by regulating differentiation signals with only small molecules from pluripotent stem cells and massively differentiates them, according to S.Biomedics.

S.Biomedics’ cell therapy TED-A9 for Parkinson's disease based on this technology was recently published in Cell Stem Cell, a specialized journal in the field of stem cells published by Cell, titled “Preclinical and dose-ranging assessment of hESC-derived dopaminergic progenitors for a clinical trial on Parkinson's disease,” demonstrating safety and efficacy of TED-A9 through non-clinical trials.

Based on the result of the non-clinical trial, TED-A9 has won approval for clinical trials by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. It is in clinical trials at Severance Hospital.

The company said TED-A9 had been well-tolerated in six patients at low and high doses and is progressing well in the trial, with symptomatic improvement observed without any significant side effects.

"We plan to pursue technology transfer or clinical partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies in the future," said Kim Dong-wook, chief technical officer of S.Biomedics. "We will develop a cell therapy for Parkinson's disease that goes beyond current symptomatic drugs and replaces dying dopamine cells with new dopamine cells."