Israeli biotech startup BioChange and Italian partners from University of Milan and BEL company launch R&D collaboration project to fight COPD disease
BioChange Ltd, the Università degli Studi di Milano, and BEL, have jointly announced their cooperation’s commencement supported by a bi-national governmental grant, that covers the development of a novel therapeutic for COPD.
The partnership project combines BioChange’s proprietary cross-linked gelatin foam (CellFoam™), BEL’s (Bioengineering Laboratories) catheter delivery technology; and will enjoy the investigational capabilities in pre-clinical studies and regenerative medicine of Prof Fabio Acocella from The Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety “Carlo Cantoni” (VESPA) in the Università degli Studi di Milano.
The grant is aimed at helping patients with COPD regain the ability to breath. Thus, the project’s outcome has the potential of saving millions of lives; and reducing the global burden of COPD, which is the third largest cause of death and debilitation. The World Health Organization reports a prevalence of 251 million cases of COPD globally in 2016, while it is estimated that 3.17 million deaths were caused by the disease in 2015 (that is, 5% of all deaths globally in that year).
“COPD is a huge unmet need with a major global health impact and by partnering with experts in the Università degli Studi di Milano and from BEL, we can make significant progress towards a therapeutic innovative solution. The PulmFoam™ is an extension of our platform for regenerative scaffold technology” stated Ishay Attar, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BioChange.
“We are excited to collaborate with BioChange and BEL to transform the prognosis of COPD into a more bearable condition” said Prof. Fabio Acocella from University of Milan.
