New Vascular Closure Devices Aim to Gain Bigger Piece of Endovascular Device Market

by Susan Hsiong, PhD More than 12 million minimally invasive vascular surgeries are done every year. These procedures require catheterization of major blood vessels to gain access to the vasculature. While catheter technology has dramatically improved, closure of the vessel puncture wound post surgery remaines a challenge. Manual compression of the puncture site is the [...]

Tengion Pioneers Autologous Tissue Engineered Regenerative Medicine Products

You have to hand it to Tengion, they are trying to tackle one of the largest challenges I can think of: producing tissue engineered organs and tissues from a patients own cells in unrelated indications (bladder, blood vessel, and kidney). While moving through clinical trials Tengion will surely be transforming patients lives with these technologies. [...]

Pervasis Advances Tissue Engineered Products for Vascular Health

Pervasis Therapeutics announced that they have raised $9.75M to further develop their allogenic tissue engineered endothelial cell (EC) product for vascular health indications. Their Vascugel product is comprised of ECs grown in 3D collagen sponges that are implanted externally on blood vessels to prevent them from occluding. Pervasis has proven safety in a Phase I [...]

Mimetic Solutions Pioneers New Smart Biomaterials for Controlled Release

When we have a cold or a headache, we pop a pill. We get sick, we go to the doctor and get a shot. Taking medication orally via a pill or getting drugs injected via a syringe are some of the oldest forms of delivering therapeutic molecules. In the past, “drug delivery” simply meant getting [...]

Biomimetics Therapeutics Expands into New Markets with Innovative GEM OS Combination Device

by Susan Hsiong, PhD Biomimetics Therapeutics, Inc. (Franklin, TN), a company which develops drug-device combination products for orthopedic applications, recently announced positive results from its Canadian clinical study evaluating its GEM OS®1 Bone Graft for the open surgical treatment of foot and ankle fusions. The GEM OS®1 is a combination product comprised of a β-tricalcium [...]

Celgene Strengthens Adult Stem Cell Patent Estate

I have recently signed up for the StemCellPatents.com weekly newsletter, and it is great to keep updated on all the patents that get issued in regenerative medicine. In the most recent newletter, they reported on two patents that issued last week that strengthen Celgene’s patent estate in adult stem cells. Celgene got into the stem [...]

Athersys’ Adult Stem Cell Product IND Approved for Acute MI Phase I Trial

Athersys and their cardiac parter, Angiotech, announced today that they got the ok from the FDA to begin a Phase I clinical study using Athersys’ Multistem adult stem cell product in acute myocardial infarction (MI). This is the second IND approval for Athersys in just over a month (and a welcome Christmas present for the [...]

Biomaterials as Therapies

The regenerative medicine industry is banking on cellular therapy to help regenerate tissues and restore function in clinical indications with high unmet needs. The mechanism of action, or how stem cells actually drive tissue regeneration, is still hotly debated – but it is likely a mixture of several actions (see item #6 in this post) [...]

Osiris Releases 1 Year Data from Chrondrogen Trial

Osiris Therapeutics last week announced positive data that came out of their Phase I/II double blinded Chondrogen trial. They demonstrated statistically significant improvements in joint pain in patients with osteoarthritis, however this seems to be an about face compared to when they announced their “disappointing” (the CEO’s words) interim 6 month data from this trial. [...]

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