BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Cell therapy inching ahead

February 22, 1999 8:00 AM UTC

The start of VitaGen Inc.'s Phase II trial of its ELAD hepatic cell replacement therapy to treat liver failure makes it one of the few companies to have progressed this far in the clinic with a cell therapy product. Issues keeping the field from progressing rapidly include ethical as well as technological barriers, and the variable nature of cells.

"Cells are different from pharmaceuticals," said Paul Sanberg, professor and chair of neuroscience at the University of South Florida and acting chief scientific officer at Layton BioScience Inc., another company working in the field. "In studies, you get differences each step of the way - from the petri dish to animals to humans. Furthermore, you're doing experiments in animal models of diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes that are not the same in humans."...