Waratah is a dynamic young biopharmaceutical company founded in April 2000 as a spin-off of RTP Pharma Inc. to develop and commercialize products for its novel, patented therapy – Islet Neogenesis Therapy (I.N.T. ) for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes. Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin because of damaged or destroyed insulin producing islet cells. Waratah's I.N.T. research represents a new paradigm in the treatment of diabetes that has the potential to replace insulin injections and diabetes-related transplants. The therapy is based on discoveries in animal models of diabetes which have shown that the systemic administration of certain growth factors stimulates the regeneration of insulin-secreting islet cells in the pancreas.
"Islet neogenesis would represent the ultimate in islet replacement (since) such islets reside in their normal home, and (would) not require immuno-protection … of all approaches to islet replacement … islet neogenesis comes nearest to restoring normal pre-diabetic conditions."
