BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN) today announced updated survival data from a pivotal clinical trial of single-agent ADCETRIS (brentuximab vedotin) in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) showing that the median overall survival has not been reached after a 26.5 month median follow-up. The data will be reported during an oral presentation at the 17th European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Meeting being held June 14-17, 2012 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. ADCETRIS is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) directed to CD30. Heavily pretreated Hodgkin lymphoma patients who relapse following autologous stem cell transplant often have a poor prognosis and there is a high unmet medical need for effective treatment options, said Scott Smith M.D., Ph.D., Loyola University Medical Center. These updated overall survival results from the pivotal trial are encouraging and demonstrate that ADCETRIS may play an important role in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory disease. Long-term Follow-up Results of an Ongoing Pivotal Study of Brentuximab Vedotin in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma A pivotal trial was conducted in 102 patients with relapsed or refractory HL after ASCT. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per independent … Continue reading →

NEW YORK & PETACH TIKVAH, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (BCLI), a developer of adult stem cell therapeutics targeting Central Nervous System (CNS) neurodegenerative diseases, announced today that Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Ltd. received the first installment of the 2012 grant from Israels Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) in the amount of approximately $350,000. The yearly grant for 2012 is $1,100,000 (~4.2 M NIS). The grant is awarded to BrainStorms Research and Development program towards the development of its leading and innovative NurOwn therapy for ALS using autologous adult stem cells. We are thankful to the OCS for its continued support of our Research and Development program. The non-dilutive capital that we are receiving from the OCS will help move forward our NurOwn technology as a potential new treatment standard for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), said Dr. Adrian Harel BrainStorms newly promoted CEO. BrainStorm is in Phase I/II human clinical trials in Israel with NurOwn, BrainStorms adult stem cell therapy in patients with ALS (often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease). The study is conducted at the Hadassah Medical Center and is headed by principal investigator Dimitrios Karussis, M.D., Ph.D., of the Hadassah … Continue reading →

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (OSIR), announced today it has received consent from New Zealand to market its first-in-class stem cell therapy Prochymal (remestemcel-L), for the treatment of acute graft-vs-host disease (GvHD) in children. With this decision New Zealand joins Canada, which last month became the worlds first internationally recognized regulatory authority to grant approval to a stem cell drug. Prochymal is also the first therapy approved for GvHD - a devastating complication of bone marrow transplantation that kills up to 80 percent of children affected, many within just weeks of diagnosis. "With each of our approvals it becomes clearer that the time for life-saving stem cell therapies in the practice of medicine has arrived, and we are humbled to have a leading role, said C. Randal Mills, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Osiris. I would like to thank the professionals at Medsafe for their thoughtful and expeditious review of this complex application. I would also like to thank the team at Osiris that continues to do an outstanding job of making Prochymal available to children around the world suffering from the devastating effects of GvHD." Osiris submitted a New Medicine Application (NMA) to Medsafe(New Zealand's medical … Continue reading →

14 June 2012 Last updated at 10:45 ET By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News Doctors in Scotland have said five stroke patients involved in an experimental stem cell treatment have shown signs of slight improvement. They have stressed that it is too soon to tell whether the improvement is due to the therapy. The medical team has talked about the first results of the treatment at a conference in Japan. The procedure is controversial as brain cells from a foetus were originally used to create the stem cells. A team, from Glasgow's Southern General Hospital, has been injecting the stem cells into the brains of stroke patients. The trial began in November 2010. The participants are all men over the age of 60 who have been severely disabled by a stroke and have shown no sign of improvement for at least a year. We hope to tease out over the next 18 months whether the improvement is due to the treatment The doctors hope that the treatment will repair their damaged brain tissue and restore some of their movement and ability to speak. The trail is at an early stage, and doctors are primarily looking to see that the … Continue reading →

14 June 2012 Last updated at 07:25 ET By Eleanor Bradford BBC Scotland Health Correspondent The first patients to take part in a clinical trial of a stem cell treatment for stroke have seen reductions in their disability, according to doctors. Six patients in the west of Scotland had human stem cells inserted close to the damaged part of their brain. After receiving the treatment, they saw improvements in the limb weakness they suffered as a result of their stroke. Howeve, doctors have cautioned against reading too much into the early results of the clinical trial. It is the world's first trial of a neural stem cell therapy for stroke. Stroke is the third largest cause of death and the single largest cause of adult disability in the developed world. The trial is being conducted at the Institute of Neurological Sciences at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, and is being led by Glasgow University neurologist Professor Keith Muir. He said: "So far we've seen no evidence of any harmful effects. We're dealing with a group of people a long time after a stroke with significant disability and we don't really expect these patients to show any change over time. … Continue reading →