Next month, patients with severe, rare, and incurable diseases such as arthritis, autoimmune diseases, Parkinson's disease, and cancer will be able to receive stem cell and immune cell therapies currently in the development stage.
Until now, patients in South Korea were unable to use developing cell and gene therapies except to participate in clinical research due to regulations. Consequently, many patients traveled to Japan for treatment, but the law will be amended and come into effect next month.
S.Biomedics is developing TED-A9, a Parkinson's disease treatment utilizing embryonic stem cells. Since 2023, it has been conducting clinical trials of phases 1 and 2a for 12 domestic Parkinson's disease patients, recently drawing interest with research results showing that a patient who received an embryonic stem cell treatment improved to the extent of playing badminton a year later. Kim Dong-wook, CHIEF Technology Officer of S.Biomedics, stated, "Once the Advanced Regenerative Bio Law revision takes effect, treatments for Parkinson's disease will become possible more quickly."