Kyoto, Japan — A Japanese pharmaceutical startup is moving closer to a medical breakthrough that could change dental care forever: a drug designed to stimulate the growth of new teeth.
Toregem Biopharma Co., a company backed by Kyoto University, plans to begin clinical trials on healthy adults around July 2024. The trials aim to test the safety of the drug, which has already shown promising results in animal studies.
The research team first demonstrated the drug’s potential in 2018, when they successfully grew new teeth in mice. Later, they achieved similar results in ferrets, animals that have both baby and permanent teeth—making them biologically closer to humans in this context.
The drug is an antibody treatment that blocks a protein known to suppress tooth development. By inhibiting this protein, the treatment activates “tooth buds”—undeveloped structures in the mouth that have the potential to form new teeth but typically remain dormant or disappear entirely.
“Most people have tooth buds beyond their baby and adult teeth, but they never fully develop,” said Katsu Takahashi, co-founder of Toregem Biopharma and head of dentistry and oral surgery at Kitano Hospital in Osaka. “Our drug reawakens these buds and triggers growth.”
Toregem is also planning a clinical trial beginning in 2025 for children aged 2 to 6 who suffer from congenital anodontia—a rare condition in which some or all permanent teeth are missing. These children will receive a single injection of the drug to stimulate tooth growth.
Researchers believe the drug could one day help adults as well, especially those who have lost teeth due to decay or other dental diseases.
“Missing teeth in a child can affect the growth of the jawbone and overall facial development,” Takahashi explained. “We hope this drug can be the key to solving such problems and improving quality of life.”
If the trials go as planned, Toregem Biopharma hopes to bring the drug to market by around 2030—potentially offering a revolutionary solution to tooth loss and dental underdevelopment worldwide.