Search Results for: cell therapy companies jersey

PHILADELPHIA When doctors saw the report on Bill Ludwigs bone-marrow biopsy, they thought it was a mistake and ordered the test repeated. But the results came back the same: His lethal leukemia had been wiped out by an experimental treatment never before used in humans. We were hoping for a little improvement, remembered the 72-year-old retired New Jersey corrections officer, who had battled the disease for a decade. He and his oncologist both broke down when she delivered the good news in 2010. Nobody was hoping for zero cancer. The pioneering therapy administered to Ludwig and a few other adults at the University of Pennsylvania hospital paved the way for clinical trials with children. Six-year-old Emily Whitehead, who was near death, became the first pediatric recipient in 2012. Like Ludwig, she remains cancer-free. Such results are why the treatment is on track to become the first gene therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration. An FDA advisory committee will decide Wednesday whether to recommend approval of the approach, which uses patients own genetically altered immune cells to fight blood cancers. If the panel gives the nod, the agency probably will follow suit by the end of September. That would … Continue reading →

TheAmerican Medical Associationis adding descriptions ofCytori Therapeuticscell-based therapy for scleroderma of the hands to its authoritative database of medical procedures, services and technology. Because so many players in the American healthcare system use the database as a reference, the addition of thedescriptions will help Cytori spread the word in the medical community about the HabeoCell Therapyit is developing. The company said the descriptions will also help it continue to advance the therapy through the clinical trial process. A code accompanies each of the descriptions in the AMAsCurrent Procedural Terminology database. The code-based descriptions provide information about medical procedures and services to doctors, patients, government healthcare agencies, medical accreditation associations, health insurance companies and others. The AMAsCurrent Procedural Terminology Editorial Panel approved Cytoris request to add the descriptions to the databases Category III listings, which cover emerging healthcare technology, procedures and services. The AMA has published the two codes and the descriptions that they cover on its website. They will become effective on Jan. 1, 2018. Cytori worked with the American College of Rheumatology, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and the American Society for Surgery of the Handon its application request to the AMA. We applaud the Editorial Panels approval … Continue reading →

The year-old Novartis-Penn Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics in Philadelphia supplies cancer fighting T cells to multiple hospitals, visible out the window. CANNONDESIGN By Jennifer Couzin-FrankelJun. 13, 2017 , 3:15 PM A transformative cancer therapy based on modified immune cells has lured doctors, companies, and patients alike, but many are hitting a frustrating roadblock: generating enough of these chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells to meet surging demand. The situation is fluid, with shortages cropping up in some places and easing in others. Doctors, meanwhile, are grappling with how best to distribute the experimental therapy among very sick patients in clinical trials. How do I allocate the resource in a way thats fairest to everybody and that treats the most patients and potentially saves the most lives? asks Stephan Grupp, a pediatric oncologist at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Pennsylvania. Grupp has offered CAR-T therapy to more than 150 children with late-stage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)and worries that because of supply limitations, he cant help more. CAR-T cell therapy took the cancer world by storm in the summer of 2010. It involves removing a patients immune cells, genetically modifying them to fight their particular cancer, then transfusing them back. … Continue reading →

Last month we examined emerging biotech Pluristem Therapeutics (PSTI), whose cell therapy treats vascular disease with a novel intramuscular injection that restores patency to damaged arteries. Now, this pioneering technique is showing promise in healing another medical disorder with few alternatives - failed bone marrow transplant (BMT). BMT, a physically demanding ordeal unchanged in procedure since 1968, is performed on 30,000 patients per year at a cost of billions of dollars. Full recover takes up to one year. In the last few months, Pluristem has been making significant progress with a substitute for BMT. In May, a seven-year old girl with aplastic anemia was treated with two intramuscular injections of PLX cells after repeated failed BMTs, and showed rapid recovery in all three blood cell components as Pluristem`s therapy stimulated hematopoietic stem cells. In June, the company`s data at the 2012 Bio International Convention showed positive results of an intramuscular injection of its PLX cells on a range of blood disorders that included primary and secondary bone marrow failure from chemotherapy and radiation therapy in cancer, and acute radiation syndrome (ARS). Now, a second patient with lymphoma has been treated with PLX cells for a failing BMT, in the same … Continue reading →