Axordia Announces a Collaboration with Lombard Medical Technologies PLC for the Development of a Next Generation Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease

Axordia Limited announced today that it has signed a letter of intent to enter into a collaboration with Lombard Medical Technologies PLC (LMT) to co-develop a new generation of treatment for coronary artery disease – a regenerative stent.

The collaboration between Lombard and Axordia is for a two and a half year project to develop a regenerative stent that encourages rather than restricts local vascular repair. Attaching Axordia’s proprietary, stem cell-derived endovascular cells to Lombard Medical’s PEP™ programmable polymer coating on the stent surface will allow the human body to promote controlled vascular repair and heal the damaged coronary artery vessel wall.
Axordia’s unique stem cell-derived endovascular cells have the remarkable ability to promote rapid healing at the site of stent implantation, reduce inflammation and create a localised immune privileged site, which acts to prevent rejection.

The stent will represent a major step forward into a new format for stent technology where early healing (endothelialisation) is promoted rather than using cytotoxic drugs on drug eluting stents (DES) which inhibit growth and can cause late stage thrombotic events. As a result this stent technology could revolutionise the DES market.
The idea of promoting self repair and healing has an intuitive appeal to physicians and the development of regenerative stent technology is seen as the natural evolution in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Healthcare industry estimates
have suggested that the drug eluting stent market has already reached a value of around $6bn but the maintenance of this market, as well as its future growth, is under question due to the safety concerns over late stent thrombosis.

Alistair Taylor, Executive Chairman of Lombard Medical said
“The potential for a regenerative stent is significant. Current drug eluting stent technology reduces restenosis but tends to inhibit normal tissue regeneration and may contribute to late stent thrombosis, with possible serious consequences for the patient. A system that engenders normal healing of the tissues may well reduce these late complications and lead to a reduction in associated health care costs.”

Many physicians believe that the success of second-generation drug eluting stents will be measured by how quickly patients can safely come off anti-platelet drug therapy and when late stent thrombosis is no longer the Achilles heel that it is for DES. It makes sense that encouraging rather than preventing healing is a better route and Axordia and Lombard believe that regenerative stents could be the answer.

Dr V Paul Gerskowitch, CEO of Axordia said:
“This collaboration with Lombard is evidence of Axordia leading the field in partnering to deliver practical, effective and safe applications for stem cells. Lombard’s experience of successful commercialisation together with all our partners cutting edge technology and intellectual property will put this consortium in a powerful position to revolutionise the treatment of one of the World’s most serious diseases. This collaboration will support a core part of Axordia’s therapeutic business stream on immune privilege”