JDRF industry partner NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., recently announced a new partnership with Daiichi Sankyo Company, Ltd., a Japanese pharmaceutical company. The partnership will focus on discovering and developing drugs to regenerate pancreatic beta cells and improve their function. Such therapies would represent a significant advance for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D). Beta cell regeneration is one of JDRF’s priority areas of research in T1D.
JDRF formed a partnership with NGM Biopharmaceuticals in September 2011. Prior to partnering with JDRF, NGM built a unique discovery platform and expertise that could enable the discovery of novel drugs to promote beta cell regeneration. JDRF’s collaboration with NGM aims to translate the company’s successes to the discovery of regenerative medicines to help people with T1D.
JDRF’s Industry Discovery and Development Partnership (IDDP) program exists to facilitate the creation of partnerships such as this one. Through the IDDP program, JDRF partners with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. These partnerships are crucial because they provide access to scientific and financial resources that enable JDRF-funded research to advance more quickly and efficiently. Industry involvement is a vital component of drug development and making new treatments available to people with T1D.
The announcement of the new partnership between NGM and Daiichi Sankyo represents a success story for JDRF’s IDDP program. The partnership will provide significant opportunities for scientific discoveries and clinical development of promising beta cell regenerative therapies for diabetes. Daiichi Sankyo will be primarily responsible for conducting trials and bringing any new treatments to market. JDRF is pleased that the NGM technology will be expanded by the partnership with Daiichi to advance beta cell regeneration research.
In our efforts to cure T1D, JDRF actively supports research aimed at restoring a person's insulin