Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free treatment information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box.

Prochymal Adult Stem Cell Therapy Available For Graft Vs Host Disease

Lost amidst the Adult stem cell company Osiris' latest press release announcing their 1rst quarter results for 2009, was a revelation that revealed that their "off the shelf" stem cell product, Prochymal, was given approval by the FDA to be used as a stem cell treatment and therapy for Graft Vs Host Disease (GVHD) in children.

Adult Stem Cells for GVHD

In May 2008, Osiris announced that Prochymal could be used under the FDA's expanded access treatment program (EATP) which would make the Adult Stem Cell treatment available to children between the ages of 2 months and 17 years old to receive the stem cell therapy for severe cases of GVHD.  This expanded access treatment program enables Osiris to sell their Prochymal 'at cost" to children with life threatening GVHD.

From the stem cell article:

Most of the patients have failed two to three prior treatment options and are using Prochymal as a last resort. But so far the results are extremely encouraging, with 100 day survival at approximately 60%. In early December 2008, Osiris received approval from Health Canada to allow the expanded access for Prochymal use in children in Canada.

Osiris is currently expanding its resources to be able to offer Prochymal through the EATP to adults in the U.S.

Expanding its resources to offer Prochymal?  Why do you have to "expand resources" for a product that is already made?   Is that code for "begging the FDA"?  But I digress.  This is really good news for children who may very well need stem cell treatment now and can't afford to wait for the clinical data to come in.  Of course that begs the question, why not make it available to adults too?  To not be able to offer an 18 year old suffering from Graft Vs Host Disease an Adult Stem Cell therapy (with no side effects) that may save his life seems ludicrous to me.

Adult Stem Cell Treatment for GVHD Contact Information

A reader sent me this article and he told me that the person to contact for information if you or someone you love has Graft Vs Host disease and are interested in Prochymal as an Adult Stem Cell treatment is :

Special Note: I have been kindly asked by Osiris to remove the contact information, if you are interested in this stem cell treatment for GVHD, please work through your oncologist who should contact Osiris on your behalf.

A special thank you to the reader who sent this in, you know who you are.  If you are reading this and have any special events or success stories you would like to share, please send me an email:  don@repairstemcells.org

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free treatment information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box.

Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML) is a deadly disease that affects only 3 children in 1 million. There is no cure. There is a cure and since you are reading this blog, you probably deduced that the cure involves Adult Stem Cells (or as we call them- REPAIR Stem Cells since that is what stem cells do- repair).

When Adolfo Gonzalez, who at the time was a 1 year old baby, was diagnosed with JMML, the doctor who diagnosed Adolfo told his father that his son was going to die "with or without treatment."

However, Adolfo's father didn't accept that! He thought there must be a way to help his young son. He found a doctor- Dr. Gary Kleiner who enrolled little Adolfo in a trial in which Adult Stem Cells taken from cord blood were implanted into little Adolfo:

"The stem cells from the cord blood started to grow in his own bone marrow and his white count started to increase back to normal, "said Dr. Kleiner.

The new blood created by the stem cells replaced all of Adolfo's blood and eliminated the leukemia cells in his body.

The battle wasn't over. The Leukemia was now gone, but the new stem cells weren't a perfect match and thus began attacking little Adolfo- Graft Vs Host Disease. What can they do about that? Get Adolfo enrolled in yet another trial and give him more Adult Stem Cells! The article doesn't say, but since it was a trial for Graft Vs Host Disease, I'm fairly certain it was Osiris and their Prochymal "Adult Stem Cells for Anything" product.

It worked!-

Today there is no evidence of cancer in his body.

Adolfo may not remember the tough first years of his live, but that's okay by his dad.

"He's going to be a great little boy. He's going to be just a normal little kid," said Gonzalez

Click here to see the article and video

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free treatment information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box.

Recently, I wrote about Osiris, the American stem cell (adult) company that had a couple products on the way to the market.  Their product- Prochymal is in Phase III of clinical trials in the United States to treat Crohn's Disease and Graft Vs Host Disease.  Prochymal can also apparently be used to treat Diabetes 1 and COPD, although not as far along as for Crohn's and GVHD.

Well, looks like Osiris struck it rich and they definitely deserve it for all their perseverance and hard work and money they have put in.  Genzyme is paying Osiris $130 million up front for the rights to sell Prochymal outside the United States and Canada in a deal that could be worth up to $1.25 Billion.

C. Randal Mills, who despite missing a first name still has become the CEO of Osiris said " This new arrangement really is about the fact that [Prochymal] we think is really a lifesaving drug," Mills said. "I'll visit little children we treat in hospitals, see a kid on a ventilator, skin peeling, intensive hemorrhaging, and three weeks later the kid's walking around the room and eating."

And the fact that this same drug can be used to treat not only GVHD, but also Crohn's and seemingly COPD and Diabetes is amazing as well.  I would be willing to bet that it is not limited to these 4 diseases either.

You did good C.  Looks like the world's first successful stem cell company is an ADULT stem cell company- go figure.