Roche and IMI announce stem cell alliance

Roche and the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) have joined forces on the launch of a new academic-industry partnership called StemBANCC.

The initiative unites ten pharmaceutical companies and 23 academic institutions and will promote the use of human-induced pluripotent stem cells as research tools for drug discovery.

It will involve the generation and characterisation of 1,500 high-quality pluripotent stem cell lines derived from 500 patients, which can be used by researchers to study a range of diseases, including diabetes and dementia.

Because these cell lines are derived directly from real subjects, they include the genes that may be implicated in diseases of interest and will be obtained from accurately screened and defined patient groups.

Martin Graf, head of the stem cell platform and coordinator of the project at Roche, said: "The cell lines will help implement patient models that will facilitate the drug development process thanks to the possibility of reproducing the disease mechanism in vitro."

Last month, Roche was named company of the year at the 2012 Pharmaceutical Market Excellence Awards, beating Abbott and Merck Sharp and Dohme to the title.