Category Archives: Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (OTCBB: NVIV), which develops technologies for treatment of spinal cord injuries, reported a net loss of $34.7 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, for the year ending Dec. 31, 2011. Cambridge-based InVivos loss is up significantly from $7.9 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, for 2010. The company said that the net loss for 2011 included a non-cash derivative loss of $26 million, reflecting an increase in the fair value of the derivative warrant liability, and a pro forma net loss of $8.6 million. Total operating expenses for 2011 were $8.7 million compared with $3.4 million for 2010, and research and development costs in 2011 were $4.1 million, up from $1.7 in 2010. General and administrative expense rose to $4.6 million from $1.7 million in 2010, which the company said was due to investments to expand infrastructure and added costs associated with public company practices. Still, Frank Reynolds, InVivos CEO, said 2011 was a landmark year for the company in a written statement, and that it performed under budget for the sixth consecutive year. We made significant progress advancing the commercialization of our first product for SCI and expanding our product pipeline to the rest of … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (OTCBB: NVIV), a developer of groundbreaking technologies for the treatment of spinal cord injuries (SCI), today reported the financial results for the year ended December 31, 2011 and provided a business update. InVivo has pioneered a new treatment that uses a biocompatible polymer-based scaffold to provide structural support to a damaged spinal cord in order to spare tissue from scarring while improving recovering and prognosis after a traumatic spinal cord injury. Today, there is no effective treatment for the spinal cord for paralysis caused by SCIs, and the market potential is estimated to be over $10 billion. 2011 was a landmark year for InVivo, performing under budget for the sixth consecutive year. We made significant progress advancing the commercialization of our first product for SCI and expanding our product pipeline to the rest of the nervous system. We also laid the groundwork to have three product applications under review by FDA by the end of 2012, said Frank Reynolds, InVivos Chief Executive Officer. Our biopolymer scaffolding is poised to enter human clinical trials for SCI during the second half of 2012 and we expect to file two additional Investigational Device Exemptions for our … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (OTC/BB: NVIV), a developer of groundbreaking technologies for the treatment of spinal cord injuries (SCI), today announced that CEO Frank Reynolds is scheduled to appear on KVVU-TVs Fox 5 News: Live in Las Vegas on Friday, March 16th at 8:45am PDT. InVivo Therapeutics has pioneered a new treatment that uses a biocompatible polymer-based scaffold to provide structural support to a damaged spinal cord in order to spare tissue from scarring while improving recovery and prognosis after a traumatic spinal cord injury. In addition to the scaffold, Reynolds will discuss applications for the technology in other areas of the nervous system, including additional products the company intends to submit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012. Our technology is a true platform that can be leveraged to create many products, including treatments for peripheral nerve injury and other conditions. Were currently under review at FDA for our first spinal cord injury treatment, and we look forward to receiving approval to begin those human studies, said Reynolds. Fox 5 News: Live in Las Vegas airs weekdays from 7:00-9:00am PDT on KVVU-TV, the FOX affiliate on channel 5 for the greater Las Vegas … Continue reading →

Public release date: 13-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: David Sampson ajpmedia@elsevier.com 215-239-3171 Elsevier Health Sciences Philadelphia, PA, March 13, 2012 A new study suggests that administering FTY720, an oral drug that has shown promise in trials for human multiple sclerosis, significantly improves locomotor recovery in mice with spinal cord injury (SCI). The research suggests a possible new avenue to counteract the degeneration of the spinal cord in human SCI. The study will be published in the April 2012 issue of The American Journal of Pathology. Beyond the initial tissue damage, much of the degradation of the spinal cord in SCI is due to a cascade of secondary injuries, including neuronal and glial apoptosis, inflammation, glial scar formation, local edema and ischemia, and oxidative stress. The aim of current SCI treatment is to counteract the mechanisms of secondary injury and prevent their pathological consequences, because central nervous system (CNS) neurons have very limited capacity to self-repair and regenerate. Researchers from the Jichi Medical University School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo had previously shown that the concentration of the lysophospholipid mediator, sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), was significantly increased in the location of … Continue reading →

3/7/2012 5:12 AM ET (RTTNews) - Stem cells have set the scientific world agog because it has been proposed as candidates to treat a myriad of diseases ranging from alzheimer's to arthritis, blindness, burns, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, liver disorders, multiple sclerosis, parkinson's, spinal cord injury and stroke. Engaged in the development of novel stem cell therapeutics targeting diseases of the central nervous system and liver is clinical-stage company StemCells Inc. (STEM: News ). For readers who are new to this Palo Alto, California-based company, here's what to expect in the coming months... StemCells' lead product candidate is HuCNS-SC cells, a highly purified composition of human neural stem cells, currently in clinical development for spinal cord injury and for Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease, or PMD, a fatal myelination disorder in children. A phase I/II clinical trial of HuCNS-SC cells in chronic spinal cord injury was initiated by the company last March. The trial, which is the world's first neural stem cell trial in spinal cord injury, is designed to enroll patients with thoracic (chest-level) neurological injuries with progressively decreasing severity of injury in three sequential cohorts. The first patient in the trial was successfully transplanted with the company's proprietary HuCNS-SC adult neural … Continue reading →

One of the world's leading researchers into spinal cord injuries says China could hold the key to a cure that he has been searching for since he met late actor Christopher Reeve in the 1990s. US-based Doctor Wise Young first used the word "cure" in relation to his work after a conversation with Reeve, the Superman hero who became a quadriplegic in an equestrian accident in 1995. All the latest LIFE+STYLE news Reeve contacted him looking for help and the two became close friends. The actor died of heart failure in 2004 at the age of 52, having devoted his life to raising awareness about spinal cord injuries and stem-cell research. But it was a star of a different sort, Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, who set Young on the path he believes has brought a cure closer than ever, thanks to ground-breaking clinical trials of stem-cell therapy he is conducting in China. "Everybody assumed that I'm doing this in China because I wanted to escape George W. Bush, but that's not the case at all," Young told AFP, recalling the former US president's 2001 decision to effectively stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. "I started the clinical trials … Continue reading →

One of the world's leading researchers into spinal cord injuries says China could hold the key to a cure that he has been searching for since he met late actor Christopher Reeve in the 1990s. US-based Doctor Wise Young first used the word "cure" in relation to his work after a conversation with Reeve, the "Superman" hero who became quadriplegic in an equestrian accident in 1995. Reeve contacted him looking for help and the two became close friends. The actor died of heart failure in 2004 at the age of 52, having devoted his life to raising awareness about spinal cord injuries and stem-cell research. But it was a star of a different sort, Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, who set Young on the path he believes has brought a cure closer than ever, thanks to ground-breaking clinical trials of stem-cell therapy he is conducting in China. "Everybody assumed that I'm doing this in China because I wanted to escape George W. Bush, but that's not the case at all," Young told AFP in an interview, recalling the former US president's 2001 decision to effectively stop Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. "I started the clinical trials in 2005 here … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (OTC/BB: NVIV), a developer of groundbreaking technologies for the treatment of spinal cord injuries (SCI), today announced that CEO Frank Reynolds is scheduled to appear on KTVI-TVs Fox 2 News in the Morning at 7:40 am CDT on Monday, March 12th in St. Louis, MO. InVivo Therapeutics has pioneered a new treatment platform that uses a biocompatible polymer-based scaffold to provide structural support to a damaged spinal cord in order to spare tissue from scarring while improving recovery and prognosis after a traumatic spinal cord injury. Reynolds will discuss the scaffold and how it is expected to work in humans, as well as results from InVivos largest non-human primate study. We expect that our technology will change the standard care for spinal cord injury treatment. Were currently under review at FDA and we look forward to receiving approval to begin human studies, said Reynolds. Our therapeutic approach confirms a clear paradigm shift in the treatment of spinal cord injuries. Fox 2 News in the Morning is the morning show for KTVI-TV, the FOX affiliate for the St. Louis market. About InVivo Therapeutics InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. is utilizing polymers as a platform technology … Continue reading →

By Ian Lucas MP - 6th March 2012 Ahead of tomorrow's Spinal Research parliamentary reception, Ian Lucas MP urges parliamentarians to learn more about the concerns of those afflicted with spinal cord injuries. I first saw the devastating effects that spinal cord injuries can have on someone in my former life when working as a personal injury lawyer. I saw also how the right specialist treatment, promptly delivered, can in many cases help a patient walk again. The reasons for the injuries varied from client to client and included road traffic accidents, sporting accidents and accidents in the workplace. At the very least the injury posed uncertainty and difficult challenges for the affected person and their families. At worst, it turned worlds upside down. I helped form the all-party parliamentary group on spinal cord injury, which I chair, to promote greater awareness of the impact of spinal cord injuries and the importance of correct, prompt treatment. The group works closely with spinal injuries patients, medical specialists and related groups in particular, the Spinal Injuries Association. The aims of the group are to look into issues faced by people with spinal injuries, particularly focusing on developments in treatments, as well as … Continue reading →

Christopher Rivet Is One of Three Finalists for the $30,000 2012 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize Newswise Troy, N.Y. Christopher Rivet has successfully married two powerful bioengineering technologies to develop a new method for delivering drugs directly to an injury site and jumpstarting the process of tissue regeneration. His innovation could be an important new tool in preventing paralysis resulting from spinal cord trauma, cancer, diabetes, or a host of other diseases. Rivet, a doctoral student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is one of three finalists for the 2012 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. A public ceremony announcing this years winner will be held at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7, in the auditorium of the Rensselaer Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. For more information on the ceremony visit: http://www.eng.rpi.edu/lemelson Rivets project is titled A Hydrogel and Electrospun Fiber Composite Material, and his faculty adviser is Ryan Gilbert, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer. Sadly, there is no shortage of situations that lead to a loss of functioning tissue and, in turn, paralysis. These circumstances can range from the surgical removal of a tumor, to untreated bedsores, to a spinal cord injury stemming from … Continue reading →