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Patients with Complete Paralysis Show Additional Recovery of Arm, Hand and Finger Function at 9-months After Treatment with Asterias' AST-OPC1

PR Newswire PR NewswireJune 13, 2017
FREMONT, Calif., June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT: AST), a biotechnology company pioneering the field of regenerative medicine, today announced that new 9-month follow-up data from the AIS-A 10 million cell cohort in the company's ongoing SCiStar Phase 1/2a clinical trial shows three of six (50%) patients have now recovered two levels of motor function and previously-announced improvements in arm, hand and finger function at 3-months and 6-months following administration of AST-OPC1 have been confirmed and further increased at 9-months.
"The new efficacy results show that previously reported meaningful improvements in arm, hand and finger function in the 10 million cell cohort treated with AST-OPC1 cells have been maintained and in some patients have been further enhanced even 9 months following dosing," stated Dr. Edward Wirth III, Chief Medical Officer. "Gains in motor function, such as the improvements observed in the SCiStar study to date, have been shown to increase a patient's ability to function independently following complete cervical spinal cord injuries. We are increasingly encouraged by these continued positive results, which are remarkable compared with spontaneous recovery rates observed in a closely matched untreated patient population."

Jane S. Lebkowski, Ph.D., Asterias' President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer, will present the 9-month efficacy and safety data on the AIS-A 10 million cell cohort later today during the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2017 Annual Meeting held in Boston, MA. The full slide presentation will be available at http://asteriasbiotherapeutics.com/inv_events_presentations.php.
9-Month Follow-up Results