Sure, I mean the potential for treatments down the line is great, but we are still a ways away from getting it out there. OCAT/ACTC has a trail of red ink from here to Timbuktu. IMHO, anyone who cares about seeing anything come of this treatment, and wants to continue to invest in it, should (after the deal closes) either buy the Astellas ADR or (a bit more difficult for little guys like us) buy shares straight up on the Japanese markets. Any future treatments for dry AMD and Stargardt's (any of these stem experiments) are very capital intensive. All of those "prestigious" eye institutes, almost all of them affiliated with higher education institutions and hospital systems, I hate to say it (but I work in higher ed and It's true) are FOR PROFIT outfits, it doesn't matter that they are linked to 'non for profit' institutions. Anyone who understands how university hospital systems and research works understands what I am talking about. Again, it comes down to the realities of how institutions and enterprise work in a capitalist system. People like doing good, but no one here is do gooding for free. As Mandeville said, "private vices, public benefits".
Do I support federal science funding and think there should be a lot more of it to develop life saving research and medical applications for the public? Sure. Is that going to happen more? Probably not without significant political consensus that simply does not exist in the United States at this time. Ergo, anyone that cares about getting these treatments out there should be happy that maybe (if it doesn't actually fail, because we don't know!) maybe Lanza will get a better team, lots and lots millions of yen for a real phase 2, and a marketable product in a few years. Or it's entirely possible that it doesn't work out. We just don't know because OCATA/ACTC has been financed on a shoestring for years with dilutions and bad financing deals and bad management etc. As I've said before anyone who invested for "the science" was a speculator. Being a speculator is great if you understand the risk. Believing in science is great, if that's your thing. But we have to be realistic and rational about everything else, all the inconvenient real world problems here.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
