RegMed Daily Dialogue, 7/11/11, a painful day, the channels of contagion are spreading
The 6 W’s: Who, what, where, when, why and what of it…
US stocks continue to sink on Monday, 7/11/11as surging benchmark yields in Italy fostered worries of a spreading European-debt crisis. I am … tired of all the news being about Europe as stocks are … pounded to the pavement again!
Lingering disappointment still abound over Friday’s jobs report, which showed a much smaller-than-expected growth in payrollsand an impasse in talks between congressional leaders and President Barack Obama on US borrowing levels is also weighing the markets. My point … get off the news and make a deal … it is all about headlines!
Shares of several stem-cell research companies lost Friday’s gains after having jumped, 7/8/11 following news that Swedish doctors were able to replace the trachea of a patient suffering from advanced cancer with one grown from the man’s stem cells. StemCells (STEM) was the sharpest gainer, with shares shooting up 18.52 % to $6.08, followed by Geron (GERN) up 9.75%, and Australia’s Mesoblast (AUX:MSB) up 4%. Gaining were also shares of Pluristem (PSTI) 7.53%, Athersys (ATHX) 3.27%, Osiris (OSIR) 2.05%, Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC.OB) 6.51% and Cytori (CYTX) 2.28%. Early Friday, doctors at Sweden’s Karolinska University Hospital announced that they had essentially saved the life of a man whose trachea, or windpipe, had become almost completely blocked by a cancerous tumor and then replacing it with one grown using stem cells taken from his bone marrow.
Regenerative medicine/stem cell universe is “GIVING UP GAINS” and continuing to decline with on 7/11/11 … The NASDAQ is DOWN -56.87 (-1.99%) to 2,802.94. The Dow is also DOWN -162.90 (-1.29%) to 12,494.30. Staying above 12K is still soothing …
Brainstorm (BCLI.OB), Fibrocell Sciences (FCSC), ThermoGenesis (KOOL), Opexa (OPXA), Pluristem (PSTI), Tengion (TNGN) and ReNeuron (LSE: RENE.L) are up
Today’s Sermon: This market is … what it … is … UGLY … but … it “ain’t” over until the emaciated portfolios hovering at the rim of the barrel … falls … to the bottom … I just don’t have any idea where the bottom is … thus … I am not BUYING dips … today!
What’s driving the regenerative medicine/stem cell market …
Tumor-Blocked Windpipe Replaced Using Lab-Made Trachea with Synthetic Materials, Patient’s Own Cells: Doctors have replaced the cancer-stricken windpipe of a patient with an organ made in a lab, a landmark achievement for regenerative medicine. The patient no longer has cancer and is expected to have a normal life expectancy, doctors said. A lab-made windpipe was implanted June 9 into a 36-year-old patient whose own windpipe was obstructed by a tumor. The latest experiment shows that a fully functioning windpipe can be manufactured in the lab without the need for a cadaver. About 48 hours after the transplant, imaging and other studies showed appropriate cells in the process of populating the artificial windpipe, which had begun to function like a natural one. The transplantation of an entirely synthetic and permanent windpipe had never been successfully done before the 6/9/11 procedure. The researchers haven’t yet published the details in a scientific journal. The bottom line, the patient’s speedy recovery marks another milestone in the quest to make fresh body parts for transplantation or to treat disease. More immediately, it offers a possible treatment option for thousands of patients who suffer from tracheal cancer or other dangerous conditions affecting the windpipe. There was no rejection by the patient’s immune system, because the cells used to seed the artificial windpipe came from the patient’s own body. A note of caution about using this technique to build more-complex organs; while tissue engineering can help to build hollow organs such as a windpipe, it will likely prove a bigger challenge to use the technique for creating the heart, which has much thicker tissue.
MultiCell and University Health Network Will Evaluate 2 Potential Therapies for Liver Cancer Treatment: OTC: MCET entered into a sponsored research agreement with University Health Network pursuant relating to the evaluation of MultiCell’s product candidates MCT-465 and MCT-485, in in vitro models for the treatment of primary liver cancer. The mechanism of action of MCT-465 and MCT-485 and their potential selective effect on liver cancer stem cells will also be evaluated. The bottom line, the role of liver stem cells in the carcinogenic process has led researchers to hypothesize that primary liver cancer arises by maturation arrest of liver stem cells. While progress has been made in developing cancer therapies that result in cytoreduction, the control of cancer over a longer interval and especially of metastatic disease remains a key goal. Cancer stem cells are believed to be responsible for cancer relapse by being less sensitive to conventional therapies. MultiCell owns exclusive rights to several issued U.S. patents and corresponding foreign patents related to the isolation and differentiation of liver stem cells.
Fate Therapeutics shifts focus to biologics: Fate Therapeutics reduced its workforce from about 40 people to about 25 people and ceased work on small-molecule drugs in an effort to focus on biotech drugs. The bottom line, John Mendlein, executive chairman of the San Diego stem cell firm says it all, “Biologics are not redundant with what other people are working on, biologics are proprietary.”
Researchers find protein that strengthens pluripotency of iPS cells: Japanese researchers have discovered that a protein called CCL2 can facilitate smoother formation of induced pluripotent stem cells into other organ cells. The bottom line, the finding could allow for easier production of human iPS cells, which are harder to develop than mice cells.
