Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) recently treated the third person in its Phase I/II medical trial focusing on dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a recent news release.
The news release noted that ACT is utilizing retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells obtained courtesy of human embryonic stem cells for the medical trial. According to ACT, the transplantation procedure was a success and the patient who underwent the procedure is recovering without complications.
“The completion of enrollment of the first cohort of patients in our dry AMD clinical trial is a significant step forward in our RPE clinical program,” said ACT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Rabin said the following in the news release. “The first six patients in the U.S. trials have all been treated at UCLA, and as we have recently announced, the trials should soon expand to additional sites.
“As we have built our clinical team, we have been fortunate to have attracted the attention of some of the highest-caliber ophthalmologists and related institutions in the U.S. and Europe and recognize the huge value that their expertise provides us as we plan for the future of our therapeutic programs. With their guidance, we have also worked with the FDA to successfully expand the criteria of eligibility for patients to participate in our dry AMD trial.”
According to the news release, ACT is presently pursuing three AMD clinical trials (using the aforementioned method) both in the U.S. and in Europe. Each of the three trials will have a dozen patients and will involve four groups of three patients per trial. Each of these groups will be placed in an ascending dosage format. ACT said in the new release that these so-called open-label trials are intended to discover both the tolerability and safety of human embryonic stem cells-derived retinal pigment epithelial cells after sub-retinal transplantation into the eyes of patients that have dry AMD. The trials will end in 12 months time, according to the press release.
Those interested in getting more info as to patient eligibility for the study can go to www.clinicaltrials.gov, according to the news release.