Category: Blogs

On December 19th, the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA’s) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended the stem cell product Holoclar (Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.)  as a first-ever medicinal treatment for severe limbal stem cell deficiency, a condition caused by physical or chemical burns to the eye or eyes in adults, which can result in blindness.

The EMA has designated Holoclar as both an orphan medicine and an advanced therapy medicinal product, which enabled the manufacturer to receive free scientific advice and protocol assistance for drug development. The CHMP recommendation was based on an assessment by the expert (Read more...)

Having treated 36 patients in two clinical trials for Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy (SMD – 24 patients to date) and for dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD – 12 patients to date), Advanced Cell Technology reported the interim results obtained with 18 of these patients (9 in each trial) in the US-based studies. Both trials (NCT01345006 – Stargardt’s, and NCT01344993 – AMD) began in July 2011, giving the company up to three-year’s data for the earliest patients, and a median of 22 months followup for all. The interim results were reported in The Lancet, published online October 14, 2014 in: “ (Read more...)

After several attempts to gain approval for its NDA for Ilunien, the FDA has finally seen the light (after approval in the UK, Germany, and marketing or pending approvals in seventeen other EU countries).

I first began writing about Iluvien in July 2010 – see my comprehensive writeup about the technology behind this and other sustained delivery drug systems – Iluvien and the Future of Ophthalmic Drug Delivery Systems. In addition I have written about the products progress in seven updates, the latest in August 2012, Iluvien Update 7: Alimera Sciences to Re-File for FDA Approval of Iluvien for (Read more...)

By Ben (Read more...)

Earlier this week, it was reported that Masayo Takahashi, an ophthalmologist at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe had appeared in front of a 19-member health-ministry committee for the safety of the clinical use of stem cells. She was flanked by Shinya Yamanaka, the biologist who first created iPS cells. Yamanaka shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his breakthrough and now heads the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application in Kyoto. Takahashi was seeking approval to implant a retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) sheet made from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into a (Read more...)

There is breaking news this week about Avalanche Biotechnologies and I would like to share it, as well as a brief update on the clinical trial underway using their proprietary gene therapy approach to treating the wet form of AMD.

Now for the breaking news. On May 5th, in a joint announcement, Avalanche (Read more...)