StemCells provides update on PMD Phase I clinical trial

StemCells, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEM) today provided an update on its ongoing Phase I clinical trial in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD), a fatal myelination disorder that afflicts male children.  Two of four planned patients for this trial have now been enrolled and transplanted with the Company's HuCNS-SC^® human neural stem cells.  The Company anticipates enrolling a third patient before year-end and the fourth shortly thereafter.  This clinical trial is the first to evaluate purified neural stem cells as a potential treatment for a myelination disorder.  The trial is being conducted at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

Stephen Huhn, MD, FACS, FAAP, Vice President and Head of the CNS Program at StemCells, Inc., said, "We are very pleased with the progress to date and I am happy to report that the first patient dosed in this trial is now eight months post-transplant, and is continuing to be observed through regularly scheduled follow-up evaluations at UCSF.  We continue to be encouraged by the growing body of safety data we are accumulating for our HuCNS-SC cells, which is particularly meaningful considering both the substantial cell dose and the fact that the cells are being directly transplanted into the brain. Together with the broad therapeutic potential demonstrated in our preclinical studies, we believe our HuCNS-SC cells could have applicability to a range of other disorders where myelination plays a key role such as multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis, certain types of cerebral palsy and spinal cord injury."  

Source: StemCells, Inc.