Beta-Pro helps meet growing demand for human pancreatic islets

Beta-Pro LLC, a biotechnology firm that provides diabetes researchers with custom cellular and consulting services, has entered a new phase of growth as it bridges the widening gap between an inconsistent, low quality supply of human pancreatic islets and skyrocketing demand.

Beta-Pro provides pharmaceutical researchers with a high quality, consistent supply of islets and other biomaterials. The firm isolates and distributes insulin-producing human pancreatic islets from surplus organs not placed for whole organ transplant in an FDA-approved, cGMP "clean room" facility. Beta-Pro then charges fees to recover the costs for organ procurement, processing, preservation, quality control, storage, handling, and delivery of islets and other biomaterials.

The use of human islets is becoming increasingly important in diabetes research. As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), "The use of human pancreatic islets can serve as a gold standard for the assessment of beta-cell function in the future, as clinical research advances toward a cure for diabetes."

As more diabetes researchers focus on islets and cellular therapies, the demand for islets has outpaced the current inconsistent supply. The Islet Cell Resource (ICRs) Centers Consortium, formerly the largest supplier of human islet cells, was only able to meet 81 percent of the demand in 2005 and only 46 percent of the demand in 2008. These deficits occurred despite a 15 percent annual production increase since 2001.

"The economics of supply and demand is at play here, and islet-cell demand for research is overwhelming the current, inconsistent supply of islets," said Beta-Pro's Cynthia M. Barber, Ph.D., co-founder and general manager. "Since only 25 percent of donor pancreases are suitable for whole-organ transplantation, our unique model is helping address the supply gap by leveraging this organ surplus for isolation and distribution of human islets in the hopes of facilitating a cure for diabetes."