Addressing Manufacturing Challenges for Commercialization of iPSC-Based Therapies

The development of reprogramming technology to generate human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has tremendously influenced the field of regenerative medicine and clinical therapeutics where curative cell replacement therapies can be used in the treatment of devastating diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and diabetes. In order to commercialize these therapies to treat a large number of individuals, it is important to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of these therapies and ensure that the manufacturing process for iPSC-derived functional cells can be industrialized at an affordable cost. However, there are a number of manufacturing obstacles that need to be addressed in order to meet this vision. It is important to note that the manufacturing process for generation of iPSC-derived specialized cells is relatively long and fairly complex and requires differentiation of high-quality iPSCs into specialized cells in a controlled manner. In this chapter, we have summarized our efforts to address the main challenges present in the industrialization of iPSC-derived cell therapy products with focus on the development of a current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP)-compliant iPSC manufacturing process, a comprehensive iPSC characterization platform, long-term stability of cGMP compliant iPSCs, and innovative technologies to address some of the scale-up challenges in establishment of iPSC processing in 3D computer-controlled bioreactors.