ACTC Announces Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial Site

Advanced Cell Technologies (a STEM cell research company) ACTC.OB announced in a press release about the selection of site for clinical trials Phase 1/2 for its macular degeneration (treatment) product.
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Press Release Source: Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. On Monday May 16, 2011, 8:30 am

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., May 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. ("ACT"; OTCBB: ACTC), a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that the Casey Eye Institute (CEI) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Ore., has received institutional review board (IRB) approval to be a site for its Phase 1/2 human clinical trial for Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy (SMD) using retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The Phase 1/2 trial will be prospective, open-label study designed to determine the safety and tolerability of the RPE cells following sub-retinal transplantation into patients with SMD.
"We are pleased that OHSU's Casey Eye Institute has agreed to participate as a site for this study that should help us better understand the role that RPE cells can play in the treatment of SMD," said Gary Rabin, interim chairman and CEO of ACT.  "This agreement marks another milestone in our history of successful collaboration with CEI on our RPE program.  The promising data from the collaboration, begun in 2007, helped pave the way for this trial, and we look forward to starting it in the coming weeks."
"We are honored to have been designated as a site for this groundbreaking clinical trial," said
Peter J. Francis, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Co-Director of the Oregon Retinal Degeneration Center at the Casey Eye Institute. "Our prior collaborative projects with ACT on its RPE program have generated promising results, and we are pleased to be a part of this trial for an exciting potential new treatment for SMD, using hESC-derived RPE cells."
Additional details on this study, for which the Jules Stein Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles has also received IRB approval, can be found on http://clinicaltrials.gov/; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01345006.