Medgenics (MDGN)

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10:37AM Medgenics announces launch of its Phase IIa clinical trial in Israel of EPODURE Biopumps to treat anemia in patients with end-stage renal disease on dialysis (MDGN) 14.65 -0.45 : Following the Israeli Ministry of Health's recent approval of the trial, Medgenics has enrolled and begun to treat the first two dialysis patients ever to receive EPODURE Biopumps. Enrollment is expected to continue in the coming months, with up to 20 patients being treated with EPODURE Biopumps. The study will evaluate the ability of EPODURE Biopumps to replace most or all of the injections of EPO or other erythropoietic stimulating agents currently used in standard care, while maintaining the patient's blood hemoglobin level within the desired range. For the first two patients in the current study, the EPODURE procedure has gone well, as in the previous study, and EPO concentrations were confirmed to be elevated within normal range in the patients' blood in the days following EPODURE administration. This is consistent with the Phase I/Phase II findings, which indicated that EPODURE Biopumps were delivering EPO in the patients. Moving forward, patients will be followed to determine how long their hemoglobin levels remain in the desired range while EPO levels remain within normal range.