Azellon, Cell Therapeutics, a company that develops stem cell therapies for tissue repair, has just announced the beginning of recruitment for the phase I/IIa trial of its Cell Bandage for knee meniscus repair. The Azellon procedure takes stem cells, harvested from the patient’s own bone marrow, grows them on a structural bio-scaffold, and two weeks later implants the newly created Cell Bandage into the patient’s knee. Azellon is a spin-out from the University of Bristol’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, and is built upon the pioneering work of Professor Anthony Hollander.
The Cell Bandage is designed to enable the tear to repair itself by encouraging cell growth in the affected tissue. This technique is similar to the windpipe transplant that saved the life of Claudia Castillo in 2008, a project in which Professor Hollander was closely involved.
Professor Hollander commented in the August 23, 2012 news release, “People have been aware of our work for some time and many have offered to take part in the trial. Up to now we’ve had to turn them away whilst we developed the process and sought the necessary regulatory approvals. I’m delighted we are now ready to go.”
Additionally, Professor Hollander told OTW,
We spent too much money as a company meeting regulatory approval that once we were granted that approval we no longer had enough resources for the trial itself. So we had to go out and raise more money, which we were able to do with some time delay.
The Cell Bandage trial is a “first in man” study for 18-45 year old volunteer patients and has a primary objective of evaluating the safety of Cell Bandage in the treatment of meniscal tears. The Cell Bandage trial will run throughout the second half of this year, with preliminary results expected by the middle of 2013.
