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Biotech / Medical : ASTM-AASTROM BIOSCIENCES: STEM CELL RESEARCH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TheAlaskan who wrote (337)	12/13/1998 12:36:00 AM
From: waldo	Respond to of 1084

Media Nuggets: >>With bone marrow transplants, Rubinstein said, at least five of the six genetic markers on the infection-fighting white blood cells must be identical in donor and recipient. But cord blood transplants with only a four-of-six match have succeeded.<< ---MSNBC >>"It's like a blood transfusion. They came in the room with four syringes. They inject into the I.V., and it gives you a second chance at life again, just that simple process," << >>"We think if we had a bank of 100,000 instead of 9,000 that we could probably find a suitable match for 90 percent of the patients who don't now have a related donor who's suitable," << ---CBS >>They said 80 percent of children under the age of 2 who would otherwise die lived when they got such transplants.<< Overall, 68 percent of the children survived, they told a meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Miami.<< ---CNN >>Of the 50 children, 45 grew new marrow and 34 of the patients are still alive.<< ---BBC >>"It makes sense to go quickly to transplant and not to wait several months before you find a donor. And in those settings, cord blood is readily available," Kurtzberg says.<< ---WRAL Online >>Emory has done five such transplants in the past five years in patients ages 4 to 12; the most recent one was just two months ago, Yeager said. So far, all are doing well, with four far enough along in recovery to be considered cured. Yeager gives 50-50 odds that the world's first cord blood transplant for sickle cell will work. Doctors should know in about three weeks, by New Year's Day, whether it's "taken hold." << ---The Atlanta Journal >>When a bone-marrow donor could not be found for 4-year-old Joshua Kelton, who was suffering from leukemia, his parents, stationed at a military base in Honolulu, conceived another child in the hope that the baby's tissues would match Joshua's. Joshua was treated with his infant brother's cord blood in August, and has been declared free of leukemia. "Right now, he's 100 percent," his father said in a telephone interview, "a normal child, the way he was before this happened." << ---New York Times >>In the new study, researchers produced enough cord blood cells for adults weighing as much as 220 pounds, by growing the cells in a laboratory ''bioreactor.'' After 12 days, there was as much as a 50-fold increase in some cells.<< ---Chicago Sun Times >>The Duke team performed successful booster transplants in 19 of 28 patients, who ranged in age from less than 1 year to 36 years.<< ---Fox News Waldo

To: TheAlaskan who wrote (337)	12/13/1998 9:28:00 PM
From: TheAlaskan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1084

ASTM will rise all week. I do not expect a huge gap tomorrow..but a consistent rise slowly and surely all week. More media on cord blood transplants is forthcoming. ASTM is the only cord blood play. If adults want to be cured of Sickle Cell Anemia, they have to have Aastrom Replicell. Why?? because there is not enough stem cells in one infants cord blood to treat an adult! You cannot mix cord blood without getting complications. Replicell grows the stem cells from one unit of cord blood and in 10 days replicates the cells enough to treat an adult. The treatment will soon be available in Europe. The company expects to have sales @ $15,000 a treatment beginning this January. The Atlanta Sickle Cell story ran all over the country....... LA to DC. We will learn if the boy is cured in 2-3 weeks. Everyone affected by Sickle Cell (or their doctor) knows about this procedure by now... The demand for this will be so great that you will have wealthy families flying to Europe to have their loved ones treated. The Alaskan

To: TheAlaskan who wrote (337)	12/14/1998 9:10:00 PM
From: w sun	Respond to of 1084

"70,000 US Sickle Cell Anemia patients X $15,000 per Aastrom treatment = $1,050,000,000! No competition=pure monopoly=license to print money." Not sure what will be the size of potential rev for astm. Just last month, when COBE terminated its agreement with ASTM. Cobe said: "While we have been committed to the development of the aastromReplicell™ System for the stem cell therapy field, the recent changes and progress in the cell therapy arena have required a new approach with this novel product." This is not a good sign. If Cobe can't see any money coming soon after putting in $20M (which now valued at ~$10M), one has to agree that there is considerable risk investing in astm at present price level. ASTM already said that its cash can last to mid of 1999. Without Cobe, ASTM needs even more money for marketing/service in Europe. It's doubtful that the potential rev (assuming successful launch in Europe) is sufficient in near term. For ASTM to survive and succeed, 2 things have to happen: 1) Find a partner for marketing in Europe. 2) Find a financial sponsor to pull money in to sustain its operation. Recent publicity in the media on blood cell therapies should help. But the bottom line is: ASTM is risky. BTW, there are several competitions, including AMGEN, in advanced development stage out there. ASTM is just a bit ahead of others ;-)(ws)