Scimitar Equity Blog

The objective of the filed IND Application is to start a Phase I/II study at multiple centers. The study would involve the use of retinal cells, which have been developed from the stem cells of the embryo for the treatment of patients suffering Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy (SMD).

As stated in our blog/post of 2/22/10:  “The NIH is … expanding its definition for what constitutes a human embryonic stem cell as acceptable lines for federal funding… If approved, it would be among the 1st clinical tests of embryonic stem cells.  As proposed in the Federal Register, the new definition will cover “early stage embryos up to and including the blastocyst stage”.   The NIH, in changing the definition, explicitly acknowledged that ACTC.OB’s application contributed to the decision.

The ruling, which will have limited impact for the overall stem cell industry, carries broad implications for ACTC.OB; essentially, re-writing its definition.

• Which means the FDA has implied funding for ACT as a response to the submitted IND application,
• Degenerative diseases of the eye part – the retina – are the most common diseases responsible for causing blindness,
• More than 10 M people in the US alone suffer from degenerative disease of the photoreceptor that is … the retina,
• Apart from Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), Stargardt’s Macular Dystropy is the next common degenerative disease,
• For treating this disease, ACTC.OB has developed a unique technique through cloning and  has been able to derive cells found in the retina, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)  from stem cells.
• These cells can/would help the photoreceptors for providing vision,
• In the onset of Stagardt’s Macular Dysrophy, the RPE cells die as this causes Before the development of the RPE cells through ACT’s cloning techniques, the blindness,there was no cure for this serious eye disorder and no way to restore the lost vision,
• ACT has carried out many animal studies to show that the RPE cells could cure blindness,
• For instance,  the Royal College of Surgeon (RCS) rat model found out that RPE cells could achieve a staggering success rate of 100% in restoring lost vision.