SYDNEY, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Australian biotechnology firm Living Cell Technologies Ltd has won approval from Russia to sell its Type 1 diabetes treatment using insulin-producing cells from pigs, the company said on Friday, sending its shares up by a quarter.
Russia was the first major industrialised nation to approve the sale of the new treatment, said LCT.
"This is a major step toward global commercialisation of this important advancement in the treatment of diabetes," LCT chief executive Dr Ross Macdonald said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.
Type 1 diabetes is a genetic condition in which the pancreas stops making insulin, requiring a person to inject it several times a day while keeping a close eye on their blood glucose levels with regular finger-prick tests.
LCT’s Diabecell treatment takes insulin-producing cells from a breed of pig and encases them, so they can be transplanted without the need for immunosuppressant drugs, said Professor Bob Elliott who heads the LCT laboratory in New Zealand.
"This is not a cure for type 1 diabetes, but it will make it easier to control," Elliott told local media.
"Their diabetes becomes easier to control with fewer highs (in blood glucose), fewer lows, and if they have unaware hypoglycaemia we can pretty much guarantee to get rid of that. It makes a huge difference to their lives."
Hypoglycaemia is a condition responsible for many diabetes-related deaths, as blood glucose can drop quickly and not be detected until a person loses consciousness.
Elliott said two out of eight trial patients in Russia were able to cease insulin injections altogether for eight months.
He said further clinical trials were under way in New Zealand and the therapy may be available there in 2013.
Shares in LCT jumped 26 percent to A$0.17, valuing the company at around A$48 million ($47 million).
