StemCells drops Batten, failing to find any patients
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Cell therapy specialist, StemCells Inc. is shelving a Phase Ib clinical trial in children with the rare genetic neurogenerative disorder neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL), also known as Batten disease, having failed to identify any patients who fit the entry criteria. The trial design, which aimed to show that StemCells' purified human neural stem cells (HuCNS-SC) could be neuroprotective, called for pre-symptomatic patients, at a very early stage of the disease. However, early diagnosis is difficult, leaving the Palo Alto, California company wondering how to test the efficacy of its approach. The market wondered, too, with the company's shares down 8.7% on the news, closing at $0.79.