Golden Meditech, a leading integrated healthcare enterprise in China, announced that it has formed a collaboration with the Department of Biology of Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) to conduct in-depth research in the area of cell therapy, particularly treating neurodegenerative diseases with stem cells.

Neurodegenerative diseases are mainly caused by the death or degeneration of nerve cells in the brain. According to statistics published in 2015, over 100 million people worldwide suffer from neurodegenerative diseases. It is expected that amid an ageing population, more than 20% of the global population (around 2 billion people) will be aged 60 or above by 2050. The number of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases will increase drastically and pose a threat to public health. At present, the drugs treating neurodegenerative diseases are not very effective and bring many harmful side effects. Therefore, cell therapy is regarded as the most promising cure for such diseases.

The Department of Biology of HKBU has been committed to conducting research on cell therapy for treating neurodegenerative diseases. A series of the internationally influential research has been published and some of which has succeeded in commercialization.

It is expected that the collaboration between Golden Meditech and HKBU in developing a new therapeutic approach for treating neurodegenerative diseases will certainly create research results and patents that can benefit patients not only in the Greater China Region but also the world.