ACT gets another trial site for stem cell therapy

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

By Rodney Brown

Advanced Cell Technology Inc. has added an institute in Philadelphia as another site where it is conducting trials of its stem cell-based treatment of an eye condition that can cause blindness.

Marlborough-based ACT (OTCBB: ACTC) said that it has added the Wills Eye Institute to the roster of site’s approved for the company’s Phase 1/2 of its stem cell-based treatment for clinical trial for Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy (SMD), a form of juvenile macular degeneration. The therapy uses human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.

Wills Eye Institute had earlier this year won approval as a site for ACT’s clinical trial for dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD), the company noted in a release.

Earlier this month, ACT released data from a U.S. clinical trial at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute testing the safety of treating Stargardt’s macular dystrophy (SMD) with human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells.

That news followed just one day after ACT announced it had started using its hESC-based treatment on an SMD patient in a Phase 1/2 trial in Europe.

MIT professor and serial entrepreneur Robert Langer joined the board of directors at ACT in October, where he also now chairs the board’s scientific advisory committee.

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ACT gets another trial site for stem cell therapy