Asterias Provides 24 Month Cohort 2 Update for its OPC1 Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial in Severe Spinal Cord Injury

Asterias Biotherapeutics (NYSE:AST), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing cell-based therapeutics to treat neurological conditions associated with demyelination and cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer, today provided additional data from the Company’s ongoing Phase 1/2a SCiStar study designed to evaluate the safety and potential efficacy of OPC1 in the treatment of severe cervical spinal cord injury.

As quoted in the press release:

All 6 subjects from Cohort 2 in the SCiStar study have now completed a 24-month follow-up as part of the study’s long-term follow-up protocol and each subject either retained the motor function recovery seen through 12 months or saw further motor function recovery from 12 to 24 months.

“While the primary endpoint for the SCiStar trial was 12 months, we are further encouraged by this additional follow-up data that shows both durable engraftment and motor function recovery being maintained or improved upon at 24 months,” commented Ed Wirth, Chief Medical Officer.  “We believe the primary goal of SCiStar, which was to observe the safety of OPC1 in cervical spinal cord injury patients and to accumulate data related to important factors such as optimal dosing levels, the immunosuppression regimen, engraftment of the cells, and rates of motor recovery observed among different study subpopulations, have been successfully achieved and increases our confidence as we prepare to meet the FDA later this year to discuss the next trial design.”

Click here to read the full press release.