Trials of Parkinson’s stem cell therapy gain regulatory clearance

The Therapeutics Goods Administration of Australia has cleared a regulatory submission of Cyto Therapeutics, a subsidiary of International Stem Cell Corporation ([ISCO], CA, USA), to initiate a Phase I/IIa dose escalation trial of human parthenogenetic stem cell-derived neural stem cells (ISC-hpNSC) in patients with moderate to severe Parkinson’s disease (PD). There remains no cure for PD, the second most common neurodegenerative disease globally, which affects over 7 million people worldwide. "We are very pleased to start the first human study of ISC-hpNSCs for the treatment of this debilitating disease. There is a large unmet medical need for new treatments that...