Stem Cell Research

June 2009's Stem Cell Sector Stock Price Winners and Losers

As noted in May, we've begun adding a comparison of individual company stock price with the prior month and have included the percentage change in individual prices from the end of the previous month to the end of the latest one. Sector Companies are then ranked by percentage stock price change, highest to lowest, in a downloadable PDF file. You'll find the file following the list of percentage winners and losers.

June's largest percentage stock price increases among our 21 company Stem Cell Sector were:

1. Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC.PK) - 63%
2. Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM) - 24%
3. Thermogenesis Corp. (KOOL) - 19%

May's largest percentage stock price decreases in our 21 company Stem Cell Sector were:

1. Medistem Laboratories (MEDS.PK) - (-22%)
2. International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO.OB) - (-14%)
3. Neostem Inc. (NBS) - (-11%)

Comparative 21 Company Stem Cell Sector chart June 30 vs. May 31, 2009:

• Sector Individual Market Values EOM 6-09 vs 5-09

The sector as a whole increased in value by 11% during June.  Comparatively, the nasdaq composite increased 3.4%.

• Sector Selected Market Value by Month 6-09

Blood Stem Cell Growth Factor Found to Reverse Memory Decline in Mice

A human growth factor that stimulates blood stem cells to proliferate in the bone marrow reverses memory impairment in mice genetically altered to develop Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University of South Florida have found. The granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF) significantly reduced levels of the brain-clogging protein beta amyloid deposited in excess in the brains of the Alzheimer's mice, increased the production of new neurons and promoted nerve cell connections.

GCSF is a blood stem cell growth factor or hormone routinely administered to cancer patients whose blood stem cells and white blood cells have been depleted following chemotherapy or radiation. GCSF stimulates the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells needed to fight infection. It is also used to boost the numbers of stem cells circulating in the blood of donors before the cells are harvested for bone marrow transplants. Advanced clinical trials are now investigating the effectiveness of GCSF to treat stroke, and the compound was safe and well tolerated in early clinical studies of ischemic stroke patients.

"GCSF has been used and studied clinically for a long time, but we're the first group to apply it to Alzheimer's disease," said USF neuroscientist Juan Sanchez-Ramos, MD, PhD, the study's lead author. "This growth factor could potentially provide a powerful new therapy for Alzheimer's disease – one that may actually reverse disease, not just alleviate symptoms like currently available drugs."

Differences Found Between Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells And Embryonic Stem Cells

One of the arguments for federal funding of embryonic stem cells -- in light of the progress being made in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell technology -- is pretty straight forward.  Researchers have used 'embryonic-like' to describe the result of induced regression on adult cells, usually skin cells. The reason embryonic-like is used is that we have not been sure whether they were identical to embryonic stem cells.  In fact, we don't know enough about how embryonic stem cells become every cell in the body to know exactly what 'embryonic-like' means.

In another example of the kind of end run occasionally taking place in the rapidly expanding stem cell research arena, UCLA researchers have found that embryonic stem cells and skin cells reprogrammed into embryonic-like cells have inherent molecular differences, demonstrating for the first time that the two cell types are clearly distinguishable from one another.

Pluristem Therapeutics Awarded $1.9 Million Grant from Israeli Government

Grants have become a major source of short term funding for many of our Sector Companies in recent months.  The latest is Pluristem Therapeutics (PSTI) about which we posted recently.  The company uses placental stem cells expanded in a proprietary bioreactor to address several diseases. 

Pluristem has been awarded a $1.9 million government grant from the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor of Israel, as a government participation in R&D expenses for the period March 2009 to February 2010. The OCS awards grants to industry in Israel to foster technological innovations. This is the fourth consecutive year that Pluristem has received this respected grant. The funds will be designated and used by Pluristem to support the clinical trials of the allogeneic placental-derived adherent stromal cell product, termed PLX-PAD, for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI), the end-stage of peripheral artery disease (PAD), as well as for other research and development activities of the Company.

Adapted from the Pluristem Therapeutics announcement.

Athersys To Receive Grant Funds From Ohio's Research Commercialization Program

Following California's lead, and in response to growing acceptance of the benefits of regenerative medicine given sufficient research, more and more states are finding ways to fund research taking place within their borders.

The Center for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine (CSCRM), comprised of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland Clinic (CC), University Hospitals (UH), and Athersys, Inc. (ATHX - a Sector Company) has received 5 million dollars from Ohio's Third Frontier Commission under the Research Commercialization Program. The funding will help support new and innovative stem cell technologies including two commercial, four emerging and three pilot projects. This funding will be matched by each of the projects to create a $10 million grant benefiting stem cell and regenerative medicine in Ohio.

Medicine's New Toolbox: MIT's View Of Induced Pluripotency's Future

"The past two years have been nothing short of a revolution," says John Dimos, a senior scientist at iZumi Bio. "These cells didn't really exist two years ago. This is all brand-new technology, and it's opening up the potential for brand-new science." The company John is with, Izumi Bio, plans to take advantage of that potential by developing a bank of iPS cells from patients with various diseases and using the cells to screen candidates for drug development.

As a postdoc at Harvard, John Dimos built a cellular model of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Lou Gherig's Disease), making it possible to study a neurodegenerative disease outside an animal for the first time. He and his colleagues collected skin cells from an 82-year-old woman with ALS, reprogrammed them into iPS cells, and directed the cells to differentiate into motor neurons that were genetically identical to the donor's defective cells. "It was the first paper to show that you can use a stem cell to see disease pathology in a petri dish," says Douglas Melton, codirector of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "That means you can now study diseases in petri dishes and not in people. That's huge."

Pluristem Therapeutics Receives European Regulatory Approval for Placental-Derived Stem Cell Clinical Trial

A recent study by Children's Hospital Oakland suggests the placenta contains the same quality stem cells as cord blood but in much larger numbers.  The primary problem with cord blood has been the relatively small harvest of stem cells for use in transplants. 

Pluristem Therapeutics, one of our Sector Companies, specializes in therapies derived using placental derived stem cells.  Now, the European Union, has approved the Company’s Clinical Trial Application (CTA) and granted approval to begin clinical trials with its placental-derived adherent stromal cell product, termed PLX-PAD, for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI), the end-stage of peripheral artery disease (PAD). In addition, Pluristem has already received approval from the Ethics Committee and, as previously announced, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had cleared the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a similar trial in the United States. Both approvals of the CTA and IND clear the way for the world’s “first-in-man” clinical trial using PLX-PAD.

Pluristem’s placental-derived stem cells are expanded using the company’s proprietary 3D PluriX™ technology. PLX-PAD is an off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all product that needs no tissue matching prior to being administered to patients. In these phase I trials, to be conducted at multiple locations in the US and Germany, PLX-PAD will be administered to patients considered "late stage" that have not responded to traditional medical or surgical interventions.

In the US alone, it is estimated that 8-12 million people suffer from critical limb ischemia associated with PAD. Several Sector Companies are researching and testing applications for critical limb ischemia.

Adapted from the Pluristem Therapeutics announcement.

Cytori Therapeutics Vs. Thermogenesis: A Fascinating Difference In Market Values

There are many reasons companies entering the commercialization stage of product  development might be valued differently by the stock market.  Some of them are rational, others are not. Thermogenesis (KOOL) and Cytori (CYTX) provide a great case study in market capitalilzation. While the companies are very similar in many ways, the market sees them as substantially different from one another.

Thermogenesis has arguably been a 'commercialization stage' company for almost ten years while Cytori is still arguably not in the commercialization stage even now although it has begun book sales. To some extent the market views Thermogenesis as a mature but unprofitable player in the cord blood processing and storage market and nothing more.  Relative to Cytori, which has yet to prove it has a broad commercial market, this perception of unprofitable maturity has hurt Thermogenesis.

Looking only at revenues, KOOL's were $21.9 million in its last fiscal year and $5.1 million in the March quarter; CYTX revenues were $4.5 million in its last fiscal and $1.9 million for the March quarter.  KOOL had a market value on Monday, June 15, of $41 million while CYTX's market value drifted down to $129 million from $138 million in Friday's trading session. Like KOOL, CYTX continues to lose money. In terms of cash burn, Cytori has less than a year's cash remaining while Thermogenesis projects profitability on a continuing cash basis within the next few operating quarters.

Multiple Sclerosis: Stem Cell Advances Toward A Cure

Multiple sclerosis symptoms have been reversed in early stage patients by using bone marrow stem cell transplants to reset the immune system.

Some 81 percent of patients in the early phase study showed signs of improvement with the treatment, which used chemotherapy to destroy the immune system, and injections of the patient's bone marrow cells taken beforehand to rebuild it.

Stem Cell Sector Companies: Who's Doing What On The Road To Workable Therapies?

A variety of approaches are being used by our Sector Companies to generate income (now and/or in the future) from stem cell regenerative medicine. Since the different approaches are difficult to compare, as well as in some cases being difficult to understand, we've put together a spread sheet indicating the various approaches and who's in what arena. The spread sheet is in PDF format:

• Stem Cell Sector Areas of Emphasis

While there are different degrees of business risk in the individual approaches, every one of these companies wants or has an off the shelf, scalable product, either a medical device for the stem cell arena (Cardiogenesis, Cytori, Thermogenesis), a logistical means of selling storage so that stem cells can be easily collected in a medical facility and transferred to the physical storage facility (Biomatrix Scientific, Cryo-Cell, Cytori, Neostem), or a broth containing the company's favorite stem cells, nutrients and other growth factors that can sustain a shelf life for use in a medical facilitlly when needed.

Veterinary Stem Cell Applications: A Glimpse of Our Stem Cell Future

As we posted on May 18 of this year, the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine has opened a new Regenerative Medicine Laboratory which will provide a state-of-the art facility for processing, culturing and storing stem cells collected from a horse’s own blood or bone marrow.  The equipment being used is being provided by our Stem Cell Sector company, Thermogenesis (KOOL).

Two companies, both of them privately owned, one in England, the other in San Diego, California, have already made significant progress in the veterinary regenerative medicine arena where stem cell therapies have become common practive.

May 2009's Stem Cell Sector Stock Price Winners and Losers

We're starting something new with May's Stem Cell Sector results.  Starting this month we're providing a chart of end of month stock price and company market values as we always have. But now we're adding a comparison of individual company stock price with the prior month and showing the percentage change in individual prices from the end of one month to the end of the next. Sector Company market values are then ranked by percentage stock price change month to month, highest to lowest.

May's largest percentage stock price increases among our 21 company Stem Cell Sector were:

1. Neostem Inc.(NBS) - 121%
2. International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO.OB) - 113%
3. Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX) - 112%

May's largest percentage stock price decreases in our 21 company Stem Cell Sector were:

1. Hepalife Technologies (HPLF.OB) - (-62%)
2. Biomatrix Scientific (BMSN.OB) - (-43%)
3. Medistem Laboratories (MEDS.PK) - (-20%)

Comparative 21 Company Stem Cell Sector chart May 31 vs. April 30, 2009:

• Stem Cell Sector Individual Market Values: EOM 5-09 vs 4-09

The sector as a whole increased in value almost 20% while the nasdaq composite increased 3.3%.

• Sector Total Market Value By Month