Led by Dr Tony Simula (CEO and MD) and Dr Leanna Read (Chair), TekCyte’s expertise is built around their in-depth understanding of and ability to manipulate material surface properties and their interaction with living cells and tissue.
TekCyte’s technology (called ‘CYPATCH‘) is a core component of Cynata’s Cymerus™ iPSC1-derived MSC2 topical wound dressing product candidate (CYP-006TK), currently being investigated in a clinical trial in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFU).
CYPATCH is a cell delivery coating technology that represents a new paradigm in active wound dressings. CYPATCH is optimised for the delivery of therapeutic adult stem cells directly onto the bed of hard-to-treat and chronic wounds including DFUs.
DFUs are a major challenge facing the wound care industry globally – placing significant burden on diabetic patients where up to 25% of chronic wounds may become infected leading to considerable morbidity and mortality.
Initial results from the CYP-006TK DFU clinical trial are promising – an analysis of the first 16 patients showed a median percentage reduction in wound surface area of 87.6% in the active CYP-006TK group compared to 51.1% in the control group.
Dr Tony Simula, TekCyte’s CEO and Managing Director, said of the agreement with Cynata: “TekCyte is very excited and pleased that an Australian company is taking ownership of CYPATCH. The collaboration between our companies has been very productive and valuable and the combined wound dressing product candidate, CYP-006TK, has the potential to transform the lives of patients with diabetic foot ulcers”.
Dr Kilian Kelly, Cynata’s CEO and Managing Director, said: “We are very excited by the initial results in our trial of CYP-006TK in DFU, and optimistic about the potential for this product to meaningfully change outcomes for patients.”
As well as CYPATCH, TekCyte has developed BIOINVISIBLE – a drug-free and highly biocompatible medical device coating that helps to make implantable materials less ‘visible’ to the body’s normal immune defenses.
BIOINVISIBLE is addressing the current global implant failure rate of up to 30% as a result of medical device complications – leaving many patients requiring additional medical intervention and surgery causing significant discomfort, morbidity or even death.
About TekCyte Ltd
TekCyte is setting a new global standard in medical coatings. Their highly specialised team of experts are world-leading in the development and manufacture of advanced coatings for medical devices and biomedical applications. Based in Adelaide, TekCyte emerged from the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Cell Therapy Manufacturing in 2018. The TekCyte team create drug-free medical device coatings that can help save thousands of lives and avoid millions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare costs each year.
About Cynata Therapeutics (ASX: CYP)
Cynata Therapeutics Limited is an Australian clinical-stage stem cell and regenerative medicine company focused on the development of therapies based on Cymerus™, a proprietary therapeutic stem cell platform technology. Cymerus™ overcomes the challenges of other production methods by using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and a precursor cell known as mesenchymoangioblast (MCA) to achieve economic manufacture of cell therapy products, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), at commercial scale without the limitation of multiple donors.
Sources for this article:
TekCyte website
Cyanata Therapeutics ASX announcement 1 July 2024
Image source: TekCyte website