First Patient Completes StemCells’ Batten Disease Trial

The first Batten disease patient has finished treatment in StemCells’ Phase I trial investigating HuCNS-SC in children. 

The trial is evaluating the safety and preliminary efficacy of the purified human neural stem cell product as a treatment for infantile and late infantile Batten disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder.

The patient has finished the 12-month immunosuppression period and has been enrolled in a separate study designed to monitor patients over a four-year period.

Five of the six patients have been transplanted with HuCNS-SC cells, and a data safety monitoring committee has identified no safety issues.

StemCells said it anticipates that the sixth patient will be transplanted in January 2008.