Matthew Gornet, MD, on Developing Alternatives to Surgery in Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease

“Right now, we have a gap in treatment and the gap is essentially failing conservative care and having no other options besides invasive costly surgery. I believe that the new cellular based treatment from DiscGenics sits right in between those 2 areas, not only from a cost standpoint, but with clinical outcomes, which initially look favorable.”

IDCT (rebonuputemcel), DiscGenics’ allogeneic discogenic progenitor cell therapy, recently demonstrated safety and yielded durable improvements in low back pain, function, quality of life, and pain medication usage by 12 weeks in patients with lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD) in 2-year data from the phase 1/2 DGX-A01 study (NCT03347708). The FDA also granted IDCT regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation.

CGTLive spoke with investigator Matthew Gornet, MD, spine surgeon at The Orthopedic Center of St. Louis, to learn more about the potential of IDCT to address unmet needs in the lumbar DDD population. He stressed how the cell therapy could offer both cost-savings and clinical benefit advantages in treating the disease.

REFERENCES

1. DiscGenics announces positive two-year clinical data from study of discogenic progenitor cell therapy for degenerative disc disease. News release. DiscGenics. January 23, 2023. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/discgenics-announces-positive-two-year-clinical-data-from-study-of-discogenic-progenitor-cell-therapy-for-degenerative-disc-disease-301728259.html
2. DiscGenics announces FDA regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation granted to IDCT for degenerative disc disease. News release. DiscGenics. January 26, 2023. https://www.discgenics.com/news-posts/2023/1/26/discgenics-announces-fda-regenerative-medicine-advanced-therapy-rmat-designation-granted-to-idct-for-degenerative-disc-disease