– FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –
CONTACT: Jan Shultis | Phone: (281) 725-1272 | Email: jan@hope.bio | Sugar Land, Texas
Sugar Land, Texas 28 April 2021: In the months to come, Houston area biopharmaceutical company Hope Biosciences will send more than 24 billion stem cells to the fight against Parkinson’s Disease.
Hope Biosciences cultures pure mesenchymal stem cells, a type of stem cell found in adult fat, to develop cell-based therapeutics for a variety of indications. This week Hope Biosciences Stem Cell Research Foundation received FDA authorization for a Phase II clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of multiple intravenous infusions of autologous adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in improving activities of daily living and quality of life in subjects with Parkinson’s Disease. Twenty-four patients will be randomized to receive six intravenous infusions of 200 million stem cells each, or approximately 1.2 billion cells total per patient.
“Through our patented technology, we have solved a major challenge in cell therapy – repeatability,” explains CEO Donna Chang. “Our ability to make healthy, fresh, viable cells in previously unfathomable quantities means that clinical trials can be designed to explore what happens when patients receive more stem cells, over a longer period of time. We believe that a key to patients experiencing significant results in chronic degenerative disease is sustained administration, and we see that theory validated in individual cases. We are hopeful that the same will hold true in a larger trial, such as this one.”
Excitement as seeing their work benefit patients invigorates the lab teams at Hope Biosciences.
“It is an incredible feeling to spend all of those hours in the lab behind a microscope and other equipment, or in cleanroom testing everything that goes into stem cells, and knowing that all of the work is worth it, because all of these cells are going to help people,” remarks Quality Control Technician Kristian Ruiz, who joined the Hope Biosciences team last year.
Participants in the Parkinson’s trial can be male or female, must be between 18-75 years of age, and must have been diagnosed with mild-to-moderate Parkinson’s at least six months prior to commencement. There is no cost, but patients must have their cells banked prior to entering the trial to be eligible.
Hope Biosciences is the only clinical grade adult stem cell banking facility in the nation that banks both adults and newborns. Hope Biosciences executes clinical research through the Hope Biosciences Stem Cell Research Foundation (HBSCRF). To date, HBSCRF has obtained FDA authorization for 17 clinical studies in 10 disease areas. Clinical trial authorizations encompass COVID-19 prevention and treatment, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and Parkinson’s disease. Expanded access protocol authorizations include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), severe osteoarthritis, complete and incomplete spinal cord injury, Cerebral Palsy, and chronic musculoskeletal pain. In its first year of operation HBSCRF administered nearly 100 billion cells at zero charge to patients.
Learn more about Hope Biosciences at www.hope.bio