In an­oth­er blow to MSCs de­vel­op­er, Pluris­tem ter­mi­nates a failed lead pro­gram

A tough year for mes­enchy­mal stem cell com­pa­nies just got tougher.

Pluris­tem, the NASA-al­lied Is­raeli stem cell biotech, an­nounced Mon­day that a da­ta mon­i­tor­ing com­mit­tee de­ter­mined the Phase III tri­al for a lead pro­gram wouldn’t meet the pri­ma­ry end­point. The com­pa­ny will aban­don the ef­fort, which had fo­cused on pre­vent­ing am­pu­ta­tions in peo­ple with crit­i­cal limb is­chemia.

They blamed a low num­ber of am­pu­ta­tions in the place­bo group, which they ar­gued made it more dif­fi­cult to prove that their stem cells were pro­vid­ing a ben­e­fit.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER