Japanese pharmaceutical startup develops world's first drug to grow new teeth

A team of scientists led by a Japanese pharmaceutical startup has been working on a drug to stimulate the growth of new teeth in what would be a world first, with the aim of commercializing it around 2030.

The Kyoto University-funded company Toregem Biopharma is expected to begin clinical trials in healthy adults around July 2024 to confirm the drug's safety, after the team managed to grow new teeth in mice in 2018, according to The Kyodo agency has reported.

Most people have “tooth buds” that have the potential to grow into a new tooth in addition to baby and permanent teeth, although buds usually do not develop and subsequently disappear.

The team has created an antibody drug that inhibits the protein that suppresses tooth growth, acting on these buds and stimulating their growth.

In 2018, the team gave the drug to ferrets, which have baby and permanent teeth similar to those of humans, and they grew new teeth.

The team plans to conduct a clinical trial of the drug starting in 2025 in children ages 2 to 6 with anodontia who are born without some or all of their permanent teeth.. Children will be injected with a dose to induce the growth of their teeth.

“Missing teeth in a child can affect jaw bone development,” said Katsu Takahashi, co-founder of Toregem Biopharma and head of dentistry and oral surgery at Kitano Hospital in Osaka.

There are also hopes of using the drug in the future for adults who have lost teeth due to cavities.. “We hope that the drug will serve as a key to solving these problems,” added Takahashi.