Adult Stem Cell Derived Drugs in Final States of Human Testing

Well, this is hopeful news. Drugs made from bone marrow stem cells are in their final stages of human testing. From the story:

Three pivotal Phase 3 trials—the last step before seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to market a drug—are under way already for Prochrymal, and some preliminary results will be available in the first half of the year. ..

Prochymal, administered as an intravenous drip, contains a particular kind of stem cells, called mesenchymal stem cells, from adult bone marrow. All stem cells, whether from adults or embryos, have the potential to divide and form more specialized cells.Mesenchymal stem cells, [CEO C. Randall] Mills said, normally help with tissue repair and inflammation control – processes that make them potentially useful for a variety of diseases.”We don’t ask the stem cells to do anything they don’t normally do,” he said.Two of the three pivotal trials are testing Prochrymal for graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a severe, potentially fatal, condition that occurs when the immune cells in transplanted
bone marrow attack the recipient. One trial is as an initial treatment, the other as a fallback.The third trial involves Crohn’s disease, an inflammation of the digestive tract.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.