By Patricia Weiss

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Bayer’s pioneering cell and gene therapies for Parkinson’s disease are at the forefront of an exciting but risky test of CEO Bill Anderson’s development credentials as patent expiries on blockbuster drugs threaten the group’s long-term growth projects.

Rivals in cell and gene therapy technologies are already generating revenue from treating cancer or rare hereditary diseases, but Bayer is entering new territory through subsidiary BlueRock’s bemdaneprocel, an experimental Parkinson’s disease treatment designed to replace dopamine-producing brain cells killed by the disease.

BlueRock reached a milestone on Monday, becoming the first to take a cell therapy against Parkinson’s to the third phase of testing, but the path to regulatory approval is long a

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