Neuralstem to offer experimental therapy outside trial

Neuralstem Inc. (NYSE-M:CUR) plans to take advantage of Colorado's right-to-try law to offer patients access to an experimental, unapproved human neural stem cell (hNSC) therapy ( NSI-566) to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. President and CEO Richard Garr told BioCentury the company will not apply for an IND or other permission from FDA, noting that "the Colorado right-to-try law allows a company to prescribe for a fatal disease a therapy that has passed a Phase I safety trial and is being actively pursued in a Phase II trial." Garr said Neuralstem's hNSC ALS therapy meets these criteria, and the company plans to start a Phase III trial next year.

Neuralstem is in the process of training surgeons and identifying a hospital and neurologists in Colorado to administer the hNSC therapy. The therapy will be administered with the identical procedure, cells and training as a clinical trial, but without FDA oversight and without "the artificial limitations built around a trial," said Garr. "The whole point of right-to-try is it sits parallel to the clinical trial process, it is not instead of clinical trials." Neuralstem has not determined whether it will charge Colorado patients. ...