USPTO Publishes Stemedica’s Patent Application

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) publishes Stemedica Cell Technologies’ (Stemedica) patent application for the treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy.

Reportedly, the application is supported by extensive data and results from patients treated within a clinical study conducted outside of the US beginning in January of 2006.

In the study the participating patients had varying degrees of Diabetic Retinopathy and Diabetic Optic Neuropathy. Patients received neural progenitor cells by retrobulbar injection and mesenchymal stem cells administered intravenously.

However, the patients were observed at baseline and then after treatment at days 2, 8, 14, 30, 60, 90, and 120. Annual physical and ophthalmic examinations were conducted each year thereafter for a three year period.

The results showed overall visual function improvements by all eight patients within sixty (60) days of treatment, reduction in absolute scotomas, increases in the thickness of the optic nerve fiber, resorption of hemorrhages, no new micro bleeding edema of the nerve fiber layer, and a decrease in macular edema.

Additionally, improvement in the function of different layers of the retina and optic nerve were experienced as well as a reduction in the number of scotomas in the field of vision were also shown.

Nikolai Tankovich, president and CMO at Stemedica, said: “Our patent application describes a dynamic method for treating diabetic retinopathy and other degenerative conditions of the eye. The breakthrough results from this study provide new hope for the thousands of patients suffering from the debilitating disease of Diabetic Retinopathy.”