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news.Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has announced the beginning of the treatment of higher-dosage cohort in two trials for dry age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt's macular dystrophy (SMD), the forms of macular degeneration.
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The patients who underwent the outpatient transplantation surgery were treated in the third patient cohort of each of the two trials that commenced in July 2011.
A 150,000 human embryonic stem cell-(hESC) derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells were injected in patients, as compared with the 100,000-cell dose used earlier in the three patients of the second cohort.
ACT chairman and CEO Gary Rabin said, "We are eagerly anticipating completing this cohort and moving on to the fourth one. We are also looking forward to initiating treatment of patients with better vision in cohort 2a, for which we are currently reviewing and qualifying patients."
The primary endpoint of the two Phase I trials is evaluation of the safety and tolerability of hESC-derived RPE cells subsequent to sub-retinal transplantation in SMD and dry AMD patients at 12 months.