Transcript:
Well I think right now, at least two companies that we know of, have have been very public about their trials and their programs. So Viacyte is in clinical trial. Vertex – I think according to their previous statements – they seem to be able to go into the clinic really soon. And then multiple really large pharmaceutical companies that are in the diabetes space all have stem cell programs. So, Novo Nordisk has a program. Lilly is working with Sigilon, a biotech startup. And then I think Sanofi has a collaboration with another company called Evotec, and they also have a stem cell program. So I think it’s definitely very encouraging that so many commercial entities with really large financial resources are going into it.
I think previously, like I mentioned earlier, most of these companies, they put a lot of bets on encapsulation as an approach. I think I would just… You know, whenever I see some of these colleagues, I would say that you should sort of, also look at non-encapsulation methods. I think it’s… Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Right ?
But I really think success will come really soon because there’s so many people trying it.
Now I think it’s more of a technically feasible approach. We probably just need to throw enough money and time to really solve the problem and we will eventually get there.
I’m not worried that we’re going to see the insulin independence of diabetes patients, from receiving these type of cell transplants really soon. So I’m really excited.