Asterias Announces Successful Commencement of Operations at New GMP Manufacturing Facility for AST-OPC1
Comtex Newswires
Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT: AST), a biotechnology company pioneering the field of regenerative medicine, today announced that the company has completed the validation and start-up of its internal Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) manufacturing facility at its headquarters in Fremont, CA. GMP is a set of rigorous quality and safety requirements for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical and biotechnology products for clinical trials and commercial sale.
"The completion of start-up and validation in the new Asterias manufacturing facility positions us to initiate GMP manufacturing activities in preparation for late-stage clinical trials of AST-OPC1," said Katy Spink, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer for Asterias. "This achievement is particularly important given the encouraging clinical efficacy and safety data we reported for AST-OPC1 last September, as well as the upcoming additional clinical readouts we are looking forward to during 2017."
Later this month, Asterias will announce new data evaluating the efficacy results six months after implantation of 10 million AST-OPC1 cells in patients with complete cervical spinal cord injuries. The data will focus on improvement in physical functioning of the upper extremities (fingers, hands and arms) of each treated patient utilizing scoring on the International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury (ISNCSCI scale).
About Asterias Biotherapeutics
Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company pioneering the field of regenerative medicine. The company's proprietary cell therapy programs are based on its immunotherapy and pluripotent stem cell platform technologies. Asterias is presently focused on advancing three clinical-stage programs which have the potential to address areas of very high unmet medical need in the fields of neurology and oncology. AST-OPC1 (oligodendrocyte progenitor cells) is currently in a Phase 1/2a dose escalation clinical trial in spinal cord injury.
AST-VAC1 (antigen-presenting autologous dendritic cells) is undergoing continuing development by Asterias after demonstrating promise in a Phase 2 study in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and completing a successful end-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA. The company is currently focused on streamlining and modernizing the manufacturing process for AST-VAC1 in advance of a planned initiation of a confirmatory phase 2b study. AST-VAC2 (antigen-presenting allogeneic dendritic cells) represents a second generation, allogeneic immunotherapy. The company's research partner, Cancer Research UK, plans to begin a Phase 1/2a clinical trial of AST-VAC2 in non-small cell lung cancer in the first half of 2017. Additional information about Asterias can be found at www.asteriasbiotherapeutics.com.
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