In 2017 Texas passed a sweeping new law, HB 810, which allowed medical clinics to provide “investigational stem cell treatments to patients with certain severe chronic diseases or terminal illnesses.” Those in favor of the law argued that patients battling life-threatening or life-changing diseases should have the right to try stem cell therapies that were involved in a clinical trial.

Now a new study, published in the journal Stem Cells and Development, looks at the impact of the law. The report says that despite some recent amendments t there are still some concerns about the law including:

• It allows treatment only if the patient has a “severe, chronic” illness but doesn’t define what that means
• It doesn’t have clearly defined procedures on tracking and reporting procedures so it’s hard to know how many patients might be treated and what the outcomes are
• There is no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight of the patients being treated
• Because the treatments are unproven there are fears this will “open up the state to unsavory and predatory practices by individuals preying on vulnerable patients”

The researchers conclude:

“While HB 810 opens up access to patients, it also increases significant risks for their safety and financial cost for something that might have no positive impact on their disease. Truly understanding the impact of stem cell based interventions (SCBI) requires scientific rigor, and accurate outcome data reporting must be pursued to ensure the safety and efficacy behind such procedures. This information must be readily available so that patients can make informed decisions before electing to pursue such treatments. The creation of the SCBI registry could allow for some level of scientific rigor, provide a centralized data source, and offer the potential for better informed patient choices, and might be the best option for the state to help protect patients.”

Another CIRM-funded company gets RMAT designation

When Congress approved the 21^st Century Cures Act a few years ago one of the new programs it created was the Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation. This was given to therapies that are designed to treat a serious or life-threatening condition, where early clinical stage trials show the approach is safe and appears to be effective.

Getting an RMAT designation is a big deal. It means the company or researchers are able to apply for an expedited review by the FDA and could get approval for wider use.

This week Poseida Therapeutics was granted RMAT designation by the Food and drug Administration (FDA) for P-BCMA-101, its CAR-T therapy for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. This is currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial that CIRM is funding

In this trial Poseida’s technology takes an immunotherapy approach that uses the patient’s own engineered immune system T cells to seek and destroy cancerous myeloma cells.

In a news release Eric Ostertag, Poseida’s CEO, welcomed the news:

“Initial Phase 1 data presented at the CAR-TCR Summit earlier this year included encouraging response rates and safety data, including meaningful responses in a heavily pretreated population. We expect to have an additional data update by the end of the year and look forward to working closely with the FDA to expedite development of P-BCMA-101.”

This means that five CIRM-funded companies have now been granted RMAT designations:

• Asterias- Spinal Cord Injury
• jCyte- Retinitis Pigmentosa
• Humacyte- Renal Dialysis
• Capricor – Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
• Poseida Therapeutics – Multiple myeloma