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Archive for the ‘Regenerative Medicine’ Category

What is Regenerative Medicine? | Los Angeles | Hollywood | Beverly Hills – Video

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

metromd.net What is Regenerative Medicine? An overview of Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cells and HGH hormone replacement by Alex Martin, MD

Read more here:
What is Regenerative Medicine? | Los Angeles | Hollywood | Beverly Hills - Video

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Regenerative Medicine and Applications of Stem Cell Research – Video

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

(June 1, 2010) Renee Reijo Pera, Ph.D., and Professor Michael Longaker discuss the future of regenerative medicine and the promise that stem cell research holds for this field. During the final quarter of the Stanford Mini Med School, some of the most timely and important topics in contemporary medicine and the biosciences are addressed

Read this article:
Regenerative Medicine and Applications of Stem Cell Research - Video

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The Future of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine – Video

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Excerpt from:
The Future of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine - Video

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"You and Your Health" TV Show – Orthopedic Regenerative Medicine – Video

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Host Dr. David Bertone, PT, DPT, OCS inteviews Dr Edward Magaziner, MD on the latest procedures used in the field of Orthopedic Regenerative Medicine including prolotherapy, platelet-rich plasma and stem cell transplants for chronic pain, tendonitis and arthritis. This showed is part of the You and Your Health series aired on Old Bridge TV.

Read more from the original source:
"You and Your Health" TV Show - Orthopedic Regenerative Medicine - Video

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Closing Remarks, Screening Stem Cells 2009: From Reprogramming to Regenerative Medicine – Video

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Robert Ames, PhD, GlaxoSmithKline, USA; From the SBS Symposium Screening Stem Cells 2009: From Reprogramming to Regenerative Medicine. Held in Boston, MA, USA - September 2-3, 2009.

Excerpt from:
Closing Remarks, Screening Stem Cells 2009: From Reprogramming to Regenerative Medicine - Video

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Mayo Clinic Regenerative Medicine Consult Service – Video

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Learn more about Mayo Clinic's new Regenerative Medicine Consult service from a Mayo Clinic expert on stem cell therapies.

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Mayo Clinic Regenerative Medicine Consult Service - Video

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Dr Farshchian: Regenerative Medicine shows Potentials – Video

Friday, October 14th, 2011

Dr Alimorad Farshchian said: Regenerative Medicine shows the Potential of Stem Cell Therapies for ALS and SMA.

Excerpt from:

Dr Farshchian: Regenerative Medicine shows Potentials - Video

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Cell Therapy & Regenerative Medicine Domains Available

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

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Please pardon the crass commercial nature of this post.  I try to keep self-promotion to a minimum here but I'm looking to unload a number of domains I have the related to cell therapy and regenerative medicine and thought this might be the easiest way to get the word out.  Let me know if you are interested in any of the following: 


anticyte.com*
biocellutions.com***
.
cardiacregenerativemedicine.com* 
cardiacregenmed.com* 
cardiactissuerepair.com* 
.
cellexpertsolutions.com**
.
celltherapyalliance.com* 
celltherapyassays.com*** 
celltherapycellutions.com**** 
celltherapycompany.com**** 
celltherapyconsortium.com* 
celltherapydevelopment.com***
celltherapymanufacturing.com**** 
celltherapymarketing.com* 
celltherapypartner.com* 
celltherapypatents.com**** 
celltherapysolution.com*** 
celltherapystrategies.com*** 
celltherapysupport.com* 
celltheraytech.com** 
celltherapytechnologies.com*** 
celltherapyventures.com*** 
celltherapyworks.com***
.
cellutionstrategies.com*** 
.
commerciaizingcelltherapy.com** 
commercialisingcelltherapy.com* 
commercializingcelltherapies.com** 
commercialisingcelltherapies.com* 
.
cordbloodshipper.com*** 
cordbloodshipping.com*** 
.
developingcelltherapies.com* 
.
diagnostacell.com* 
diagnostacells.com* 
diagnosticstemcells.com** 
.
discoverystemcells.com** 
.
expertcellutions.com***
.
integratedcelltherapycellutions.com** 
integratedcelltherapysolutions.com**
.
ipsbiologics.com** 
ipsbiomedical.com**
ipsbioscience.com**
ipsbiosystems.com**
ipsbiotechnologies.com** 
ipslifesciences.com**
.
longtailbiomedical.com***
longtailtherapeutics.com*** 
longtailtherapies.com*** 
.
personalizedcelltherapy.com*** 
.
regenerativecellutions.com*** 
regenerativemedicinepatents.com****
.
stemostics.com** 
stemomics.com** 
stemonics.com*** 
.
stemcellcollect.com*** 
.
strategiccellutions.com** 
strategicell.com*** 
.
thecelltherapycompany.com****
.
totalcelltherapysolution.com***
totalcelltherapysolutions.com*** 


Funky ones: 
 cellenterprise.com* 
 cellsforce.com* 
 cellsinnovations.com* 
 cellsmarket.com* 
 cellspitch.com*
 cellsrep.com* 
 cellstech.com* 
 cellsventure.com*
 iregener8.com** 


I have others - some of which are variations of ones listed above (such as with "the" in front) and would be available - some of which I'm still wanting to hold.
 _____________________________ 


 * ~$1,500 
** ~$5,000 
*** ~$10,000
**** ~$20,000

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CellTherapyBlog

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Cell Therapy & Regenerative Medicine Domains Available

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

Tweet 


Please pardon the crass commercial nature of this post.  I try to keep self-promotion to a minimum here but I'm looking to unload a number of domains I have the related to cell therapy and regenerative medicine and thought this might be the easiest way to get the word out.  Let me know if you are interested in any of the following: 


anticyte.com*
biocellutions.com***
.
cardiacregenerativemedicine.com* 
cardiacregenmed.com* 
cardiactissuerepair.com* 
.
cellexpertsolutions.com**
.
celltherapyalliance.com* 
celltherapyassays.com*** 
celltherapycellutions.com**** 
celltherapycompany.com**** 
celltherapyconsortium.com* 
celltherapydevelopment.com***
celltherapymanufacturing.com**** 
celltherapymarketing.com* 
celltherapypartner.com* 
celltherapypatents.com**** 
celltherapysolution.com*** 
celltherapystrategies.com*** 
celltherapysupport.com* 
celltheraytech.com** 
celltherapytechnologies.com*** 
celltherapyventures.com*** 
celltherapyworks.com***
.
cellutionstrategies.com*** 
.
commerciaizingcelltherapy.com** 
commercialisingcelltherapy.com* 
commercializingcelltherapies.com** 
commercialisingcelltherapies.com* 
.
cordbloodshipper.com*** 
cordbloodshipping.com*** 
.
developingcelltherapies.com* 
.
diagnostacell.com* 
diagnostacells.com* 
diagnosticstemcells.com** 
.
discoverystemcells.com** 
.
expertcellutions.com***
.
integratedcelltherapycellutions.com** 
integratedcelltherapysolutions.com**
.
ipsbiologics.com** 
ipsbiomedical.com**
ipsbioscience.com**
ipsbiosystems.com**
ipsbiotechnologies.com** 
ipslifesciences.com**
.
longtailbiomedical.com***
longtailtherapeutics.com*** 
longtailtherapies.com*** 
.
personalizedcelltherapy.com*** 
.
regenerativecellutions.com*** 
regenerativemedicinepatents.com****
.
stemostics.com** 
stemomics.com** 
stemonics.com*** 
.
stemcellcollect.com*** 
.
strategiccellutions.com** 
strategicell.com*** 
.
thecelltherapycompany.com****
.
totalcelltherapysolution.com***
totalcelltherapysolutions.com*** 


Funky ones: 
 cellenterprise.com* 
 cellsforce.com* 
 cellsinnovations.com* 
 cellsmarket.com* 
 cellspitch.com*
 cellsrep.com* 
 cellstech.com* 
 cellsventure.com*
 iregener8.com** 


I have others - some of which are variations of ones listed above (such as with "the" in front) and would be available - some of which I'm still wanting to hold.
 _____________________________ 


 * ~$1,500 
** ~$5,000 
*** ~$10,000
**** ~$20,000

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CellTherapyBlog

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Commercial-stage Cell Therapy Companies and Products

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Below is sample list of companies with cell therapy products* on the market in Europe, USA, or Japan.

Company                                                    Product              
Advanced BioHealing (now part of Shire)       Dermagraft
Aliktra                                                       MySkin
Avita Medical                                             ReCell® Spray-On Skin
Bio-Tissue                                                 Prokera
Bio-Tissue                                                 AmioGraft
BioTissue Technologies                              BioSeed-C
BioTissue Technologies                              chondrotissue
Cytori                                                        Celution System
euroderm                                                   Epidex
euroderm                                                   EpiGraft
Fidia Farmaceuitici                                     Hyalograft 3D
Fidia Farmaceuitici                                     Laserskin
Fidia Farmaceuitici                                     Hyalograft C
J-TEC Epidermis                                       Japan Tissue Engineering Co.
J-TEC Cartilage                                         Japan Tissue Engineering Co.
J-TEC Corneal Epithelium                          Japan Tissue Engineering Co.
Nuvasive                                                    Osteocel Plus
Provenge                                                    Dendreon
Sanofi (previously Genzyme)                       Epicel
Sanofi (previously Genzyme)                       Carticel
TiGenix                                                      ChrondroCelect
Therakos                                                    Therakos Photopheresis

* This list does not purport to be exhaustive of all cell therapy products legally sold in these regions.  This list  does not include approved products in other highly-regulated jurisdictions, such as Australia, New Zealand, or Korea, for example.  This list also excludes those cell-based treatments provided as a hospital or clinic-based service such as stem cell transplantation (hospital) or Regenexx (Regeneration Sciences, Inc.).

For the purposes of this list, “cell therapy” is defined loosely as any product which has in it live cells when administered to the patient including tissue transplants and devices.

Note that some of these products may be subject to emerging regulatory restrictions under the EMA ATMP regulations which may result in them having to be pulled from the market by the end 2012 at the latest.

If you would like to suggest any revisions or additions to this list, please do so in the comment section below.

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

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Potential far-reaching implications of the ongoing fight over point-of-care autologous cell therapy

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

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The FDA recently issued an untitled letter to Parcell Laboratories and its contract manufacturing organization, New England Cryogenic Center (NECC), pertaining to the product PureGen™ Osteoprogenitor Cell Allograft intended for the "repair, replacement, reconstruction of musculoskeletal defects". The letter stated:

"The PureGen™ Osteoprogenitor Cell Allograft is not the subject of an approved biologics license application (BLA) nor is there an IND in effect. Based on this information, we have determined that your actions have violated the Act and the PHS Act."

This would appear to be an indicator that the FDA does not intend to relax enforcement of its view of how autologous cell therapies are to be regulated despite its ongoing litigation on this very subject with RSI.

As followers of this blog know, since the battle's inception in 2008 I have followed the case of Regenerative Sciences, Inc and their war with the FDA over their right to provide certain autologous cell therapy treatments to patients in certain circumstances without FDA approval. My first blog entry on the topic was in September 2008 in which I pointed out that the FDA had written a letter to RSI that July taking issue with some of their practices.

My next blog on the subject was February 2009 in which I concluded "I think the FDA is building its case and a showdown is on its way to Denver-town."

At the advice of legal counsel, I pointed out in a March 2010 blog entry that my reference to FDA's July 2008 letter to RSI was not officially a "warning letter" as that is defined and as I had referred to it but rather an "untitled letter". I also commented that FDA's lack of enforcement action against RSI to-date was emboldening medical practitioners into thinking FDA was reconsidering their position on the legality of providing autologous, expanded cells to patients outside of an FDA-cleared IND or BLA.

I took some satisfaction in announcing on my blog in August 2010 that the FDA had finally taken action against RSI. My satisfaction was not rooted in a belief that the FDA is right (I've always been agnostic as to which side is right) but in the sense that things had occurred as I had predicted they would.

The action the FDA chose to take against RSI was to seek an injunction against RSI from continuing to provide the "offending" treatment - a version of the Regenexx™ procedure using mesenchymal stem cells (“MSCs”) grown outside the body after harvest for the later infusion back into the donor-patient for the treatment of various orthopedic conditions - which the FDA alleges is a "product" falling under its regulatory authority but for which RSI has never received any FDA clearance to provide to patients.

RSI counterclaimed against the United States, challenging the FDA’s authority to regulate the Regenexx™ Procedure in question and challenging certain FDA regulations. The United States moved to dismiss Defendants’counterclaims and for summary judgment.

I have continued to follow the case relatively closely through a number of source (see this sample media coverage in OthosSpineNews) as it continued to progress. Last month, for example, a blog I follow posted an eloquent case in support of RSI's position with the help of Mary Ann Chirba, J.D., D.Sc., M.P.H. of Boston College Law School.

So it was with much interest that I was recently notified of an order issued by the court which appears to have the potential to take the case in a very unexpected direction with enormous potential ramifications.

The context is that the judge was reviewing the FDA's motion for summary judgment, RSI's response, and FDA's reply when the judge issued this order to show cause.

At its essence the Judge has ordered the FDA to file a brief no later than 26 September showing the court why the term “chemical action” applies to stem cells. It is is a short Order the core of which reads as follows:

The Government finds its definition for a “drug” in the FDCA: “The term ‘drug’means . . . articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals” and “articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals.” 21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)&(C).

This definition, at least as to subsection (C), would be broad enough to encompass a boot on a patient’s ankle to hold it secure after ankle surgery. The Court doubts that was Congress’s intent.

Neither party references the definition for “device,” found in the statute at 21 U.S.C. § 321(h). A “device,” is a certain kind of “article” used in diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease, 21 U.S.C. § 321(h)(2), but which, presumably unlike a drug, “does not achieve its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes.” 21 U.S.C. § 321(h).

These contrasting definitions immediately raise the question of why the Court should not interpret the meaning of the word “drug” to include not only an article for use in diagnosis, etc., and intended to affect the structure or function of a patient, but also an article that “achieve[s] its primary intended purposes through chemical action” and which is “dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes.” Id.

The United States is ORDERED TO SHOW CAUSE why the Court should not read the definition of “device” at 21 U.S.C. § 321(h) as informing and restricting the definition of “drug” at 21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)&(C).

It will be most curious to see how the FDA argues out of the corner that many believe the Judge has painted the agency. The FDA recently defined “chemical action” in its draft "Guidance for Industry and FDA Staff: Interpretation of the Term “Chemical Action” in the Definition of Device under Section 201(h)of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act". What is curiously absent from the document is any mention of cells or HCT/P’s despite CBER’s approval stamp on the document.

Another line of argument centers around whether cells - notably 'stem' cells - are “metabolized" as that term is defind.

If one extrapolates the ramifications of where the court appears to be currently leaning, the implications of this judgment may have far-reaching implications for biologics in general well beyond cell therapy and certainly well beyond autologous cell therapy.

As some quite logically argue, one potential scenario is that this judge rules all biologics fail to fall within the legislative "drug" definition. The argument goes like this. The drug regulations live under title 21, which has narrow definitions for what constitutes a drug. The FDA’s authority over biologics comes from title 42, which is merely to control communicable disease transmission in transplants, with no authority to take the drug provisions from title 21 and apply them to title 42. So the agency is risking a loss of control over all biologics.

What’s curious here - and perhaps somewhat ironic for RSI at this stage - is that they only ever set out to challenge their ability to regulate autologous cells used by a physician as part of his or her medical practice yet now the FDA's authority to govern all biologics is currently under question.

The fact that I cannot fathom the courts striking FDA's jurisdiction over all biologics when the dust settles on this case does not make the arguments any less compelling and it does leave open the possibility that a lower court Judge such as the one presiding over this case may be inclined to make a ruling which essentially ensures the issues are punted to the appellate courts for a more considered ruling. In such circumstances, even if the FDA were to prevail at the end of the day (perhaps a decade down road) the uncertainty such a ruling would rain down on the sector would be commercially stifling - even if if were just limited to autologous cell therapy let alone if were any broader.

My dated and unpolished law degree can only take this analysis so far and anyone interested in some further but delightfully light and practical reading on the potential ramifications of the case could do no better than read a paper published recently by the relevant practice groups at the law firm K&L Gates entitled "Cultured Stem Cells for Autologous Use:Practice of Medicine or FDA Regulated Drug and Biological Product in which they review the case and its potential implications - the latter of which the authors are not guilty of underestimating in the following concluding sentence of their analysis:

The court’s decision will, to a large degree, dictate the types of legal strategies and business models that will be necessary to successfully perform stem cell procedures in the future.

_____________

post-script: The potential stink of commercial uncertainty wafting from this case is even more egregious when combined with the uncertainty around what to expect from the FDA in its much-anticipated and typically overdue guidance on adipose-derived cell therapies.

Rumor has it that the FDA is leaning toward considering most (if not all) means of deriving cell populations from adipose tissue (typically lipoaspirate) to be governed as what we colloquially refer to as a '351' thus taking it out of the purview of the practicing physician and into the hands of companies prepared to follow the traditional "drug development' model for new medicines. The rationale here is that the mechanical and/or enzymatic digestion required to separate the desired cell populations from the stroma take the process beyond "minimal manipulation'.

Watch for this guidance from CBER OCTGT in the weeks to come and/or any relevant rulings by the Tissue Reference Group. This would be a serious blow to those building business models around point-of-care, autologous adipose-derived cell therapy treatments.

What makes this even more interesting is the pace of which US-based medical practitioners (and/or companies supporting them) are adopting and selling autologous cell-based products, services and/or treatments for sundry indications in ways which many would argue are apparently in obvious and flagrant disregard for the FDA's regulatory authority over such treatments. Included for consideration on such a list would be the following:

IntelliCell Biosceinces

eternaMD

Arizona Stem Cell Center

.

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

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Commercial-stage Cell Therapy Companies and Products

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Below is sample list of companies with cell therapy products* on the market in Europe, USA, or Japan.

Company                                                    Product              
Advanced BioHealing (now part of Shire)       Dermagraft
Aliktra                                                       MySkin
Avita Medical                                             ReCell® Spray-On Skin
Bio-Tissue                                                 Prokera
Bio-Tissue                                                 AmioGraft
BioTissue Technologies                              BioSeed-C
BioTissue Technologies                              chondrotissue
Cytori                                                        Celution System
euroderm                                                   Epidex
euroderm                                                   EpiGraft
Fidia Farmaceuitici                                     Hyalograft 3D
Fidia Farmaceuitici                                     Laserskin
Fidia Farmaceuitici                                     Hyalograft C
J-TEC Epidermis                                       Japan Tissue Engineering Co.
J-TEC Cartilage                                         Japan Tissue Engineering Co.
J-TEC Corneal Epithelium                          Japan Tissue Engineering Co.
Nuvasive                                                    Osteocel Plus
Provenge                                                    Dendreon
Sanofi (previously Genzyme)                       Epicel
Sanofi (previously Genzyme)                       Carticel
TiGenix                                                      ChrondroCelect
Therakos                                                    Therakos Photopheresis

* This list does not purport to be exhaustive of all cell therapy products legally sold in these regions.  This list  does not include approved products in other highly-regulated jurisdictions, such as Australia, New Zealand, or Korea, for example.  This list also excludes those cell-based treatments provided as a hospital or clinic-based service such as stem cell transplantation (hospital) or Regenexx (Regeneration Sciences, Inc.).

For the purposes of this list, “cell therapy” is defined loosely as any product which has in it live cells when administered to the patient including tissue transplants and devices.

Note that some of these products may be subject to emerging regulatory restrictions under the EMA ATMP regulations which may result in them having to be pulled from the market by the end 2012 at the latest.

If you would like to suggest any revisions or additions to this list, please do so in the comment section below.

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CellTherapyBlog

Read More...

Potential far-reaching implications of the ongoing fight over point-of-care autologous cell therapy

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Tweet
The FDA recently issued an untitled letter to Parcell Laboratories and its contract manufacturing organization, New England Cryogenic Center (NECC), pertaining to the product PureGen™ Osteoprogenitor Cell Allograft intended for the "repair, replacement, reconstruction of musculoskeletal defects". The letter stated:

"The PureGen™ Osteoprogenitor Cell Allograft is not the subject of an approved biologics license application (BLA) nor is there an IND in effect. Based on this information, we have determined that your actions have violated the Act and the PHS Act."

This would appear to be an indicator that the FDA does not intend to relax enforcement of its view of how autologous cell therapies are to be regulated despite its ongoing litigation on this very subject with RSI.

As followers of this blog know, since the battle's inception in 2008 I have followed the case of Regenerative Sciences, Inc and their war with the FDA over their right to provide certain autologous cell therapy treatments to patients in certain circumstances without FDA approval. My first blog entry on the topic was in September 2008 in which I pointed out that the FDA had written a letter to RSI that July taking issue with some of their practices.

My next blog on the subject was February 2009 in which I concluded "I think the FDA is building its case and a showdown is on its way to Denver-town."

At the advice of legal counsel, I pointed out in a March 2010 blog entry that my reference to FDA's July 2008 letter to RSI was not officially a "warning letter" as that is defined and as I had referred to it but rather an "untitled letter". I also commented that FDA's lack of enforcement action against RSI to-date was emboldening medical practitioners into thinking FDA was reconsidering their position on the legality of providing autologous, expanded cells to patients outside of an FDA-cleared IND or BLA.

I took some satisfaction in announcing on my blog in August 2010 that the FDA had finally taken action against RSI. My satisfaction was not rooted in a belief that the FDA is right (I've always been agnostic as to which side is right) but in the sense that things had occurred as I had predicted they would.

The action the FDA chose to take against RSI was to seek an injunction against RSI from continuing to provide the "offending" treatment - a version of the Regenexx™ procedure using mesenchymal stem cells (“MSCs”) grown outside the body after harvest for the later infusion back into the donor-patient for the treatment of various orthopedic conditions - which the FDA alleges is a "product" falling under its regulatory authority but for which RSI has never received any FDA clearance to provide to patients.

RSI counterclaimed against the United States, challenging the FDA’s authority to regulate the Regenexx™ Procedure in question and challenging certain FDA regulations. The United States moved to dismiss Defendants’counterclaims and for summary judgment.

I have continued to follow the case relatively closely through a number of source (see this sample media coverage in OthosSpineNews) as it continued to progress. Last month, for example, a blog I follow posted an eloquent case in support of RSI's position with the help of Mary Ann Chirba, J.D., D.Sc., M.P.H. of Boston College Law School.

So it was with much interest that I was recently notified of an order issued by the court which appears to have the potential to take the case in a very unexpected direction with enormous potential ramifications.

The context is that the judge was reviewing the FDA's motion for summary judgment, RSI's response, and FDA's reply when the judge issued this order to show cause.

At its essence the Judge has ordered the FDA to file a brief no later than 26 September showing the court why the term “chemical action” applies to stem cells. It is is a short Order the core of which reads as follows:

The Government finds its definition for a “drug” in the FDCA: “The term ‘drug’means . . . articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals” and “articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals.” 21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)&(C).

This definition, at least as to subsection (C), would be broad enough to encompass a boot on a patient’s ankle to hold it secure after ankle surgery. The Court doubts that was Congress’s intent.

Neither party references the definition for “device,” found in the statute at 21 U.S.C. § 321(h). A “device,” is a certain kind of “article” used in diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease, 21 U.S.C. § 321(h)(2), but which, presumably unlike a drug, “does not achieve its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes.” 21 U.S.C. § 321(h).

These contrasting definitions immediately raise the question of why the Court should not interpret the meaning of the word “drug” to include not only an article for use in diagnosis, etc., and intended to affect the structure or function of a patient, but also an article that “achieve[s] its primary intended purposes through chemical action” and which is “dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes.” Id.

The United States is ORDERED TO SHOW CAUSE why the Court should not read the definition of “device” at 21 U.S.C. § 321(h) as informing and restricting the definition of “drug” at 21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)&(C).

It will be most curious to see how the FDA argues out of the corner that many believe the Judge has painted the agency. The FDA recently defined “chemical action” in its draft "Guidance for Industry and FDA Staff: Interpretation of the Term “Chemical Action” in the Definition of Device under Section 201(h)of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act". What is curiously absent from the document is any mention of cells or HCT/P’s despite CBER’s approval stamp on the document.

Another line of argument centers around whether cells - notably 'stem' cells - are “metabolized" as that term is defind.

If one extrapolates the ramifications of where the court appears to be currently leaning, the implications of this judgment may have far-reaching implications for biologics in general well beyond cell therapy and certainly well beyond autologous cell therapy.

As some quite logically argue, one potential scenario is that this judge rules all biologics fail to fall within the legislative "drug" definition. The argument goes like this. The drug regulations live under title 21, which has narrow definitions for what constitutes a drug. The FDA’s authority over biologics comes from title 42, which is merely to control communicable disease transmission in transplants, with no authority to take the drug provisions from title 21 and apply them to title 42. So the agency is risking a loss of control over all biologics.

What’s curious here - and perhaps somewhat ironic for RSI at this stage - is that they only ever set out to challenge their ability to regulate autologous cells used by a physician as part of his or her medical practice yet now the FDA's authority to govern all biologics is currently under question.

The fact that I cannot fathom the courts striking FDA's jurisdiction over all biologics when the dust settles on this case does not make the arguments any less compelling and it does leave open the possibility that a lower court Judge such as the one presiding over this case may be inclined to make a ruling which essentially ensures the issues are punted to the appellate courts for a more considered ruling. In such circumstances, even if the FDA were to prevail at the end of the day (perhaps a decade down road) the uncertainty such a ruling would rain down on the sector would be commercially stifling - even if if were just limited to autologous cell therapy let alone if were any broader.

My dated and unpolished law degree can only take this analysis so far and anyone interested in some further but delightfully light and practical reading on the potential ramifications of the case could do no better than read a paper published recently by the relevant practice groups at the law firm K&L Gates entitled "Cultured Stem Cells for Autologous Use:Practice of Medicine or FDA Regulated Drug and Biological Product in which they review the case and its potential implications - the latter of which the authors are not guilty of underestimating in the following concluding sentence of their analysis:

The court’s decision will, to a large degree, dictate the types of legal strategies and business models that will be necessary to successfully perform stem cell procedures in the future.

_____________

post-script: The potential stink of commercial uncertainty wafting from this case is even more egregious when combined with the uncertainty around what to expect from the FDA in its much-anticipated and typically overdue guidance on adipose-derived cell therapies.

Rumor has it that the FDA is leaning toward considering most (if not all) means of deriving cell populations from adipose tissue (typically lipoaspirate) to be governed as what we colloquially refer to as a '351' thus taking it out of the purview of the practicing physician and into the hands of companies prepared to follow the traditional "drug development' model for new medicines. The rationale here is that the mechanical and/or enzymatic digestion required to separate the desired cell populations from the stroma take the process beyond "minimal manipulation'.

Watch for this guidance from CBER OCTGT in the weeks to come and/or any relevant rulings by the Tissue Reference Group. This would be a serious blow to those building business models around point-of-care, autologous adipose-derived cell therapy treatments.

What makes this even more interesting is the pace of which US-based medical practitioners (and/or companies supporting them) are adopting and selling autologous cell-based products, services and/or treatments for sundry indications in ways which many would argue are apparently in obvious and flagrant disregard for the FDA's regulatory authority over such treatments. Included for consideration on such a list would be the following:

IntelliCell Biosceinces

eternaMD

Arizona Stem Cell Center

.

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Good Data? $100. Good Product Development? $100. Good Commercialization Strategy? Priceless.

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

I'm not going to fool anyone into believing I'm a therapeutic product development expert but that's not going to stop me from making a few humble observations in light of the Dendreon "fiasco" of last week which I have no doubt will one day be considered an unfortunate pothole on their road to eventual success.

(though perhaps not before certain current management finds themselves polishing their CVs or retiring to spend their time alternating between their yachts and the courtroom defending their questionable stock trading antics)

I received the following message this morning by email. I don't include it here to promote or endorse or even comment on NWBT, DCVax, Linda Powers, or Toucan Capital in any way -- or in a way that is blind to all the things right or wrong about any of them -- but simply to illustrate the 3 points I want to make below the email.
NWBT HIGHLIGHTS COST EFFECTIVENESS OF DCVAX® IN VIEW OF RECENT IMMUNOTHERAPY PRICING CONCERNS

Northwest Biotherapeutics' (OTC.BB: NWBO)... DCVax® immune therapies for a broad range of cancers (including prostate, brain, ovarian and others) hold the promise, based on available data to date, of being cost effective and priced below other immune therapies while still providing substantial profit margins for the Company and longer survival for patients.

The investor concerns in the news relate to the pricing and reimbursement of Provenge for late stage, metastatic prostate cancer. Provenge is priced at $93,000 for one month of treatment and was approved by the FDA based upon having added 4.5 months of patient survival (to reach overall survival of 25.9 months).

NWBT’s DCVax® will be priced in the range of $37,000 per year for up to 3 years of treatments. In NWBT’s Phase I/II multi-center clinical trial in late stage, metastatic prostate cancer, DCVax® added 18 months of patient survival (to reach overall survival of 38.7 months). DCVax® has previously been cleared by the FDA for a 612-patient, randomized, controlled Phase III trial, although the trial has not yet begun. As is typical before a Phase III trial, the manufacturing processes and product costs have already been determined.
...
...

The key to the substantial pricing advantage of DCVax® is NWBT’s proprietary batch manufacturing process together with its cryopreservation technology for frozen storage of the finished vaccine. NWBT has spent a decade developing and improving its manufacturing and cryopreservation processes. The manufacturing of personalized, living cell products is expensive. But the frozen storage of living cells is quite low-cost – once the specialized freezing technology is worked out for a particular type of cells (the culture conditions, rate of freezing, density of cells and many other factors).

NWBT’s manufacturing methods produce – in a single manufacturing run – a large batch of personalized DCVax® product for 3 years of treatments are much less costly than separate manufacturing runs for each treatment. The technology for freezing the master immune cells (dendritic cells) which comprise DCVax® enables these
cells to remain frozen for years and, when needed, to be thawed and “come back to life” with full potency.

This approach makes DCVax® an "off the shelf” product [for that patient] for several years of treatments after just one manufacturing run. In contrast, Dendreon must do a separate manufacturing run for each one month of treatments. In addition, Dendreon's Provenge product is fresh and not cryopreserved, which limits its shelf life to at most a few weeks.

Another important factor in the cost effectiveness of DCVax® is its simplicity and ease of administration. DCVax® is delivered as a small intra-dermal injection under the skin, similar to a flu shot. As such, it can be administered in any physician’s office or clinic. There is no lengthy intravenous infusion, with the attendant patient discomfort, cost and need for a specialty infusion center. In contrast, Dendreon’s Provenge is delivered by intravenous infusion.

The cost effectiveness of NWBT’s DCVax® is enhanced by the fact that DCVax® is targeting a portion of the prostate cancer market that is 4 times the size of the market segment that Dendreon’s Provenge is currently targeting....

Now this is NWBT clearly blowing their horn - nothing wrong with that - in an attempt to woo back frightened investors. I'm agnostic as to whether any of it is true but it does serve to draw out several points of distinction between what some companies might do to optimize their products for commercial success versus what others might do in an overriding belief that clinical benefit is the only precursor to the happiness of investors, the physician community, patients, and partners.
What I say below is not a commentary, in criticism or praise, on any particular company including NWBT or Dendreon. Many others - Luke Timmerman among the best of them - have provided outstanding and in-depth analysis of the Dendreon story along the way.
I'm only interested in what we as an industry might learn from recent experiences or trends and to perhaps facilitate a useful discussion based on 3 simple observations from someone who has swum in this cell therapy pond for now just over a decade:
1. There is a tendency among some to believe that what we are making (cell-based therapies) are so revolutionary and compelling that the products should almost sell themselves - to investors, partners, regulators, insurers, physicians, and patients.
Of course we know it's not true but sometime we act like it is.
Appligraf and Dermagraft didn't sell themselves to physicians even after regulatory approval. Neither is Provenge apparently-- though they did a good job of selling it to very vocal patient groups. Organogenesis and Advanced Biohealing had to work very long and hard to get profitable reimbursement and market penetration. Dendreon will too.
Investing early in understanding potential clinical adoption hurdles, reimbursement issues, and how the product is and will be perceived not by its champions but by its critics and most importantly, the average agnostic practitioner, is not easy to do because it means spending precious resources long before there is a product to sell but it may mean the difference between a product which eventually sells and one which doesn't.
2. There is a tendency to de-emphasize what I call the "ancillary sciences" around a product -- like lowering the cost of goods, optimizing fresh or frozen storage, cell delivery (e.g., injection/application science) mechanisms, in vivo cell tracking, onsite clinical handling, etc.
Product development science is a science. The science that turns good data into something commercially viable. Not everyone is good at it and certainly this is where a lot of companies fail. PD is not the 'second cousin' in the room of esteemed basic and clinical science.
Take these examples when considering the cellular immunotherapy sector:
Several prominent immunotherapy investigators I have spoken with strongly believe cell-based immunotherapies will require long-term administration to be meaningfully effective -- certainly longer than 3 doses in 3 months. Did Dendreon lock into their clinical protocol too early?
Other immunotherapy companies - like Opexa Therapeutics for instance - create multiple doses for a patient from a single patient collection thus saving considerable expense and creating a better patient experience. Did Dendreon lock into their manufacturing protocol too early?
Other companies are investing heavily in finding ways to extend viable shelf-life of their fresh products or to create cryopreserved versions of their product to optimize its commercial viability.
Imagine a Dendreon that only had to build one manufacturing facility (with a backup CMO) to serve the US market rather than 3 facilities. With a cryopreserved version of the product or a version that had longer than its current limited shelf-life (~72 hours I believe?) that might have been possible.
At every point in clinical development there must be concurrent R&D towards the product's:
  1. science (e.g., MOA, characterization, etc),
  2. clinical effect, and
  3. how to optimize its commercial viability - a big part of which is what we think of as 'product development'.
This is the 3-legged footstool of a commercialization strategy geared for success (credit to Bob Preti of Progenitor Cell Therapy for this analogy).
But 'product development' is also not always about the product strictly speaking and even an expansive definition of product development is only part of a good commercialization strategy.
There is significant component of it that is about studying ways to lower the cost of goods, improving manufacturability and scalability, how hard/easy it is to handle, the patient treatment experience, the physician experience, how it impacts patient's QOL (quality of life), not just what side effects it generates but what side effects it prevents (resulting from other treatments or no treatment) and the cost-savings that generates, etc.
Other cell therapy companies have been more proactive in terms of engaging not only KOLs but average practitioners in a meaningful way that might impact their product and clinical design as well as reimbursement and clinical delivery issues.
3. There is an understandable, largely VC-driven, desire to race forward to the next trial phase when a phase-repeat to optimize or better understand different aspects of the product might be the better way to go.

What's worse? Facing the prospect of not being able to get funding or a partner on the terms one wants for a 2nd phase II or burning through a bunch more money in phase III in an attempt to bring a product to market that isn't market ready? I understand its a tough choice -I'm not saying it's an easy one - but one is certainly more strategic and, as pharma says, is certainly a "de-risking" pathway.
Consider the ratio of products we've seen thus far in the cell therapy industry's short life-span that have been raced to phase III or (worse yet) market only to seriously stumble if not fail when they get there. I can think of 8-10 off the top of my head and there are less than 20 cell or tissue based therapies on the market in US/EU that have received any kind of formal regulatory approval.
Some would argue that this is a prime example of why spinning companies out of academia too early is not beneficial because companies want to minimize exploratory science and lock into a "product" too early. I would argue that this may be true if the problem is understanding the product characterization or mechanism of action but not if your problem is related to how best to develop/optimize the product for commercial viability. Few academics are geared to think this way.
Summary
I certainly don't believe Dendreon failed to identify or consider each and every one of the things they might have done better along the way. I'm sure they did and sure they made calculated judgement-calls about how to approach each one.
Since I'm not a shareholder I don't have to worry myself about being critical of their decisions but rather simply to do what I can to ensure that we as an industry do our best to learn from what - with the benefit of retrospect - may be apparent they did right and wrong.
What are your thoughts? To what extent are the problems that Dendreon has experienced along the way with PROVENGE a predicable result of it being a first-generation product or the result of insufficient focus on critical investigation into the less sexy "ancillary sciences" of product and commercial optimization?
(comment below and/or in the LinkedIn Cell Therapy Industry Group)



http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com
Read More...

Good Data? $100. Good Product Development? $100. Good Commercialization Strategy? Priceless.

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

I'm not going to fool anyone into believing I'm a therapeutic product development expert but that's not going to stop me from making a few humble observations in light of the Dendreon "fiasco" of last week which I have no doubt will one day be considered an unfortunate pothole on their road to eventual success.

(though perhaps not before certain current management finds themselves polishing their CVs or retiring to spend their time alternating between their yachts and the courtroom defending their questionable stock trading antics)

I received the following message this morning by email. I don't include it here to promote or endorse or even comment on NWBT, DCVax, Linda Powers, or Toucan Capital in any way -- or in a way that is blind to all the things right or wrong about any of them -- but simply to illustrate the 3 points I want to make below the email.
NWBT HIGHLIGHTS COST EFFECTIVENESS OF DCVAX® IN VIEW OF RECENT IMMUNOTHERAPY PRICING CONCERNS

Northwest Biotherapeutics' (OTC.BB: NWBO)... DCVax® immune therapies for a broad range of cancers (including prostate, brain, ovarian and others) hold the promise, based on available data to date, of being cost effective and priced below other immune therapies while still providing substantial profit margins for the Company and longer survival for patients.

The investor concerns in the news relate to the pricing and reimbursement of Provenge for late stage, metastatic prostate cancer. Provenge is priced at $93,000 for one month of treatment and was approved by the FDA based upon having added 4.5 months of patient survival (to reach overall survival of 25.9 months).

NWBT’s DCVax® will be priced in the range of $37,000 per year for up to 3 years of treatments. In NWBT’s Phase I/II multi-center clinical trial in late stage, metastatic prostate cancer, DCVax® added 18 months of patient survival (to reach overall survival of 38.7 months). DCVax® has previously been cleared by the FDA for a 612-patient, randomized, controlled Phase III trial, although the trial has not yet begun. As is typical before a Phase III trial, the manufacturing processes and product costs have already been determined.
...
...

The key to the substantial pricing advantage of DCVax® is NWBT’s proprietary batch manufacturing process together with its cryopreservation technology for frozen storage of the finished vaccine. NWBT has spent a decade developing and improving its manufacturing and cryopreservation processes. The manufacturing of personalized, living cell products is expensive. But the frozen storage of living cells is quite low-cost – once the specialized freezing technology is worked out for a particular type of cells (the culture conditions, rate of freezing, density of cells and many other factors).

NWBT’s manufacturing methods produce – in a single manufacturing run – a large batch of personalized DCVax® product for 3 years of treatments are much less costly than separate manufacturing runs for each treatment. The technology for freezing the master immune cells (dendritic cells) which comprise DCVax® enables these
cells to remain frozen for years and, when needed, to be thawed and “come back to life” with full potency.

This approach makes DCVax® an "off the shelf” product [for that patient] for several years of treatments after just one manufacturing run. In contrast, Dendreon must do a separate manufacturing run for each one month of treatments. In addition, Dendreon's Provenge product is fresh and not cryopreserved, which limits its shelf life to at most a few weeks.

Another important factor in the cost effectiveness of DCVax® is its simplicity and ease of administration. DCVax® is delivered as a small intra-dermal injection under the skin, similar to a flu shot. As such, it can be administered in any physician’s office or clinic. There is no lengthy intravenous infusion, with the attendant patient discomfort, cost and need for a specialty infusion center. In contrast, Dendreon’s Provenge is delivered by intravenous infusion.

The cost effectiveness of NWBT’s DCVax® is enhanced by the fact that DCVax® is targeting a portion of the prostate cancer market that is 4 times the size of the market segment that Dendreon’s Provenge is currently targeting....

Now this is NWBT clearly blowing their horn - nothing wrong with that - in an attempt to woo back frightened investors. I'm agnostic as to whether any of it is true but it does serve to draw out several points of distinction between what some companies might do to optimize their products for commercial success versus what others might do in an overriding belief that clinical benefit is the only precursor to the happiness of investors, the physician community, patients, and partners.
What I say below is not a commentary, in criticism or praise, on any particular company including NWBT or Dendreon. Many others - Luke Timmerman among the best of them - have provided outstanding and in-depth analysis of the Dendreon story along the way.
I'm only interested in what we as an industry might learn from recent experiences or trends and to perhaps facilitate a useful discussion based on 3 simple observations from someone who has swum in this cell therapy pond for now just over a decade:
1. There is a tendency among some to believe that what we are making (cell-based therapies) are so revolutionary and compelling that the products should almost sell themselves - to investors, partners, regulators, insurers, physicians, and patients.
Of course we know it's not true but sometime we act like it is.
Appligraf and Dermagraft didn't sell themselves to physicians even after regulatory approval. Neither is Provenge apparently-- though they did a good job of selling it to very vocal patient groups. Organogenesis and Advanced Biohealing had to work very long and hard to get profitable reimbursement and market penetration. Dendreon will too.
Investing early in understanding potential clinical adoption hurdles, reimbursement issues, and how the product is and will be perceived not by its champions but by its critics and most importantly, the average agnostic practitioner, is not easy to do because it means spending precious resources long before there is a product to sell but it may mean the difference between a product which eventually sells and one which doesn't.
2. There is a tendency to de-emphasize what I call the "ancillary sciences" around a product -- like lowering the cost of goods, optimizing fresh or frozen storage, cell delivery (e.g., injection/application science) mechanisms, in vivo cell tracking, onsite clinical handling, etc.
Product development science is a science. The science that turns good data into something commercially viable. Not everyone is good at it and certainly this is where a lot of companies fail. PD is not the 'second cousin' in the room of esteemed basic and clinical science.
Take these examples when considering the cellular immunotherapy sector:
Several prominent immunotherapy investigators I have spoken with strongly believe cell-based immunotherapies will require long-term administration to be meaningfully effective -- certainly longer than 3 doses in 3 months. Did Dendreon lock into their clinical protocol too early?
Other immunotherapy companies - like Opexa Therapeutics for instance - create multiple doses for a patient from a single patient collection thus saving considerable expense and creating a better patient experience. Did Dendreon lock into their manufacturing protocol too early?
Other companies are investing heavily in finding ways to extend viable shelf-life of their fresh products or to create cryopreserved versions of their product to optimize its commercial viability.
Imagine a Dendreon that only had to build one manufacturing facility (with a backup CMO) to serve the US market rather than 3 facilities. With a cryopreserved version of the product or a version that had longer than its current limited shelf-life (~72 hours I believe?) that might have been possible.
At every point in clinical development there must be concurrent R&D towards the product's:
  1. science (e.g., MOA, characterization, etc),
  2. clinical effect, and
  3. how to optimize its commercial viability - a big part of which is what we think of as 'product development'.
This is the 3-legged footstool of a commercialization strategy geared for success (credit to Bob Preti of Progenitor Cell Therapy for this analogy).
But 'product development' is also not always about the product strictly speaking and even an expansive definition of product development is only part of a good commercialization strategy.
There is significant component of it that is about studying ways to lower the cost of goods, improving manufacturability and scalability, how hard/easy it is to handle, the patient treatment experience, the physician experience, how it impacts patient's QOL (quality of life), not just what side effects it generates but what side effects it prevents (resulting from other treatments or no treatment) and the cost-savings that generates, etc.
Other cell therapy companies have been more proactive in terms of engaging not only KOLs but average practitioners in a meaningful way that might impact their product and clinical design as well as reimbursement and clinical delivery issues.
3. There is an understandable, largely VC-driven, desire to race forward to the next trial phase when a phase-repeat to optimize or better understand different aspects of the product might be the better way to go.

What's worse? Facing the prospect of not being able to get funding or a partner on the terms one wants for a 2nd phase II or burning through a bunch more money in phase III in an attempt to bring a product to market that isn't market ready? I understand its a tough choice -I'm not saying it's an easy one - but one is certainly more strategic and, as pharma says, is certainly a "de-risking" pathway.
Consider the ratio of products we've seen thus far in the cell therapy industry's short life-span that have been raced to phase III or (worse yet) market only to seriously stumble if not fail when they get there. I can think of 8-10 off the top of my head and there are less than 20 cell or tissue based therapies on the market in US/EU that have received any kind of formal regulatory approval.
Some would argue that this is a prime example of why spinning companies out of academia too early is not beneficial because companies want to minimize exploratory science and lock into a "product" too early. I would argue that this may be true if the problem is understanding the product characterization or mechanism of action but not if your problem is related to how best to develop/optimize the product for commercial viability. Few academics are geared to think this way.
Summary
I certainly don't believe Dendreon failed to identify or consider each and every one of the things they might have done better along the way. I'm sure they did and sure they made calculated judgement-calls about how to approach each one.
Since I'm not a shareholder I don't have to worry myself about being critical of their decisions but rather simply to do what I can to ensure that we as an industry do our best to learn from what - with the benefit of retrospect - may be apparent they did right and wrong.
What are your thoughts? To what extent are the problems that Dendreon has experienced along the way with PROVENGE a predicable result of it being a first-generation product or the result of insufficient focus on critical investigation into the less sexy "ancillary sciences" of product and commercial optimization?
(comment below and/or in the LinkedIn Cell Therapy Industry Group)



http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com
Read More...

Clinical trial costs

Sunday, July 31st, 2011
Based on a survey* of 21 drug makers, 12 biotechs, nine device makers and 23 contract research organizations, PharmaLot has recently published the following metrics for current clinical trial costs (see full article here)
Average per-patient trial costs across all therapeutic areas:
Phase I: $21,883
Phase II: $36,070
Phase IIIa: $47,523
Phase IIIb: $47,095
Phase IV: $17,042
Average cost per patient for a cardiovascular trial:
Phase II: $33,700
Phase IIIa: $21,750
Phase IIIb: $6,830
In oncology, the average per patient trial cost:
Phase II: $73,303
Phase IIIa: $57,207
Phase IIIb: $65,900
For central nervous system disorders:
Phase II: $28,197
Phase IIIa: $33,768
Phase IIIb: $41,824
For diabetes:
Phase II: $ 8,854
Phase IIIa: $12,667
Phase IIIb: $10,700
Anyone have any thoughts or data as to how this compares to cell therapy trials?
--Lee
*survey conducted by Cutting Edge Information.
http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com
Read More...

Clinical trial costs

Sunday, July 31st, 2011
Based on a survey* of 21 drug makers, 12 biotechs, nine device makers and 23 contract research organizations, PharmaLot has recently published the following metrics for current clinical trial costs (see full article here)
Average per-patient trial costs across all therapeutic areas:
Phase I: $21,883
Phase II: $36,070
Phase IIIa: $47,523
Phase IIIb: $47,095
Phase IV: $17,042
Average cost per patient for a cardiovascular trial:
Phase II: $33,700
Phase IIIa: $21,750
Phase IIIb: $6,830
In oncology, the average per patient trial cost:
Phase II: $73,303
Phase IIIa: $57,207
Phase IIIb: $65,900
For central nervous system disorders:
Phase II: $28,197
Phase IIIa: $33,768
Phase IIIb: $41,824
For diabetes:
Phase II: $ 8,854
Phase IIIa: $12,667
Phase IIIb: $10,700
Anyone have any thoughts or data as to how this compares to cell therapy trials?
--Lee
*survey conducted by Cutting Edge Information.
http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com
Read More...

Cell Therapy’s Got Talent Technology Showcase – A Call for Cell Therapy Manufacturing Technology Presentations

Sunday, July 10th, 2011


in collaboration with:

In an effort to showcase the latest technologies driving the production of cell therapies, the Cell Therapy Group and Informa Life Sciences are proud to announce the introduction of the "Technology Showcase" session and award to be held in conjunction with Informa's Cell Therapy Manufacturing conference to be held 30 November to 1 December 2011 in Brussels Belgium.

Having held the same conference last year in London, Informa is committed to building on the success of last year's event by continuing to create a meaningful European forum for the issues related to the clinical and particularly commercial-scale production of cell-based therapies.

The Technology Showcase session, taking place on the main agenda, will feature 6 x 10 minute presentations from innovative companies developing cutting-edge technologies in the field of cell therapy manufacturing, and is particularly relevant to SME and academic groups with limited marketing resources.

All presentations will be reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Board with the winner announced at the end of the session. Exposure on BioProcess International's website is also included.

Technologies we'd like to promote include:

  • Manufacturing systems including bioreactor technologies
  • Cell harvest/collection technologies
  • Cell storage/logistics technologies
  • Clinical cell delivery and/or other point-of-care technologies
  • Automation technologies
  • Cell separation system
  • Cell process devices
  • Innovative reagents, scaffolds, matrices, and other “ancillary” tools
  • Technologies to close currently open systems
  • Suspension-based production systems
  • Disposable technologies

How to apply:

To apply to present companies must submit an abstract (<300 words) to daniel.barry@informa.com and lbuckler@celltherapygroup.com outlining the product or service to be presented and why it is a critical technology related to cell therapy manufacturing.

The deadline for applications is SEPTEMBER 15 2011 - Priority given to early submissions

    The cost of taking part in the Technology Showcase is £2,700 which includes the following benefits:

    • 1 x 2-day conference pass (normal price £1,599)
    • 10-minute podium presentation within main conference room
    • 1 poster display in the Exhibition Hall
    • Marketing - company logo displayed on website and event guide
    • Exposure in BPI Magazine

    Terms and conditions:

    To be eligible the product or service to be presented must be:

    • On the market for no less than 2 years or expected to be on the market no later than Q4 2012
    • Appropriate for, applicable to, and compliant with clinical-grade manufacturing requirements (technologies only available for research use will not be considered)

    Plus...

    • The company must have no more than 15 employees
    • The company has been running for no more than 5 years, and
    • The company generates annual revenue of no more than $5m

    For further information please contact: daniel.barry@informa.com or lbuckler@celltherapygroup.com

    http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com
    Read More...

    Cell Therapy’s Got Talent Technology Showcase – A Call for Cell Therapy Manufacturing Technology Presentations

    Sunday, July 10th, 2011


    in collaboration with:

    In an effort to showcase the latest technologies driving the production of cell therapies, the Cell Therapy Group and Informa Life Sciences are proud to announce the introduction of the "Technology Showcase" session and award to be held in conjunction with Informa's Cell Therapy Manufacturing conference to be held 30 November to 1 December 2011 in Brussels Belgium.

    Having held the same conference last year in London, Informa is committed to building on the success of last year's event by continuing to create a meaningful European forum for the issues related to the clinical and particularly commercial-scale production of cell-based therapies.

    The Technology Showcase session, taking place on the main agenda, will feature 6 x 10 minute presentations from innovative companies developing cutting-edge technologies in the field of cell therapy manufacturing, and is particularly relevant to SME and academic groups with limited marketing resources.

    All presentations will be reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Board with the winner announced at the end of the session. Exposure on BioProcess International's website is also included.

    Technologies we'd like to promote include:

    • Manufacturing systems including bioreactor technologies
    • Cell harvest/collection technologies
    • Cell storage/logistics technologies
    • Clinical cell delivery and/or other point-of-care technologies
    • Automation technologies
    • Cell separation system
    • Cell process devices
    • Innovative reagents, scaffolds, matrices, and other “ancillary” tools
    • Technologies to close currently open systems
    • Suspension-based production systems
    • Disposable technologies

    How to apply:

    To apply to present companies must submit an abstract (<300 words) to daniel.barry@informa.com and lbuckler@celltherapygroup.com outlining the product or service to be presented and why it is a critical technology related to cell therapy manufacturing.

    The deadline for applications is SEPTEMBER 15 2011 - Priority given to early submissions

      The cost of taking part in the Technology Showcase is £2,700 which includes the following benefits:

      • 1 x 2-day conference pass (normal price £1,599)
      • 10-minute podium presentation within main conference room
      • 1 poster display in the Exhibition Hall
      • Marketing - company logo displayed on website and event guide
      • Exposure in BPI Magazine

      Terms and conditions:

      To be eligible the product or service to be presented must be:

      • On the market for no less than 2 years or expected to be on the market no later than Q4 2012
      • Appropriate for, applicable to, and compliant with clinical-grade manufacturing requirements (technologies only available for research use will not be considered)

      Plus...

      • The company must have no more than 15 employees
      • The company has been running for no more than 5 years, and
      • The company generates annual revenue of no more than $5m

      For further information please contact: daniel.barry@informa.com or lbuckler@celltherapygroup.com

      http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com
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      In vivo cell trafficking just took a leap forward

      Sunday, July 3rd, 2011


      Today Celsense, Inc. and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center announced that the FDA has authorized the use of the Cell Sense imaging reagent for use in a phase I clinical trial of a dendritic cell caccine to treat colorectal cancer patients.

      This is the first FDA authorization of the use of Cell Sense in patients. Cell Sense is a novel perfluorocarbon tracer agent used to safely and efficiently label cells ex vivo without the use of transfection agents. Labeled cells are then transplanted into the patient enabling researchers and clinicians to non-invasively track the administration and migration of therapeutic cells using MRI. Applications include tracking cells in immunotherapy or regenerative medicine as well as the diagnosis of inflammatory sites by tracking selected populations of immune cells.

      Cell Sense has been studied extensively in preclinical testing with many different human cell types including human cells in animals. For instance, in 2009 a paper was published in Informa's Cytotherapy, in which Celsense’s novel perfluorocarbon tracer agent (product “Cell Sense”) was used to label human DCs ex vivo for the purpose of tracking the cells in vivo post-transplant by 19F MRI. The paper provided an assessment of the technology and demonstrated that human DCs were effectively labeled without significant impact on cell viability, phenotype or function. Furthermore, the labeled dendritic cells were clearly detected in vivo by 19F MRI in a model system, with the labeled cells being shown to migrate selectively towards draining lymph node regions within 18 hours after transplant.

      Many investigators looking at various ways to label cells to enable in vivo imaging have expressed concern that the FDA would delay the regulatory progress of their therapeutic candidates if an imaging modality was introduced.

      This concern is based on numerous reports of MRI contrast reagents, such as the commonly investigated USPIO (ultrasmall superparamagnet iron oxide), deleteriously affecting the cells (see recent paper in Cell Transplantation).

      "We believe that the authorization of this IND will alleviate such concerns and lower the barriers for adoption. The agency’s tangible support for bringing new technologies to bear in the translation of cell-based therapeutics is very encouraging,” s Charlie O'Hanlon, President and CEO of Celsense.

      While there have been approved uses of imaging reagents (e.g., Feridex, etc) with cell therapies in other countries (e.g. Isreal), I believe this may be the first FDA-sanctioned use of a particle-based imaging label with a cell-based therapy. Other approaches to cellular imaging include nuclear imaging reagents and genetically modifying cells with reporter genes such as those provided by CellSight Technologies.

      Imaging labels are capable of providing investigators with data demonstrating where the cells go, at what volumes, and for how long they stay at the target location.

      The industry has been keen to see these kinds of technologies clinically employed but different cell-based labels have created their own technical, clinical, and/or regulatory hurdles. I'm hopeful that Celsense and others like them are now ushering us into a new era where we will eventually be able to use various technologies to monitor and collect valuable data concerning cells after they have been administered as a therapy to a patients.

      Additional resources on the topic of imaging for cell therapies:

      CIRM recently hosted a webinar - "CIRM/RMC Webinar: Imaging Technology for Cellular Therapies. One of the speakers, Dr. Shahriar Yaghoubi from CellSight Technologies, provides an overview of cell therapy imaging with emphasis on PET. Click hear for the archived playback.

      A very interesting article posted today on Harvard's StemBook website. "In-vivo Stem Cell Imaging - Regulatory Challenges and Advances". Nice overview intel from J. Bulte and a snapshot into E. Wirth's (of Geron) perspective re: stem cell imaging.

      A new book from CRC Press edited by Dara Kraitchman and Joe Wu will be out soon. It gathers together different methods for comparison. The issue will remain the sensitivity of the methods to track few cells. "Stem Cell Labeling for Delivery and Tracking Using Non-Invasive Imaging".

      MRI contrast agents can change stem cell proliferation

      There s also a very informative discussion thread on the topic in the Cell Therapy Industry group on LinkedIn.

      http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com
      Read More...

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