Regenerative medicine company Juventas Therapeutics is touting the results from 12-month data of a phase 1 clinical trial of heart failure patients.
At 12 months, heart failure patients treated with the company’s stem cell therapy showed “significant” improvements in two key measures — a six-minute distance-walking test, as well as the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire, a patient self-assessment of how heart failure affects daily life.
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Dr. Marc Penn, Juventas’ founder and chief medical officer, said the results of the trial suggest the company’s therapy is “inducing fundamental changes in the heart of treated patients,” according to a statement from Cleveland-based Juventas.
The company’s technology, JVS-100, works by recruiting stem cells from the bone marrow to create new blood vessels and prevent ongoing cell death at the site of a patient’s injury.
Juventas has plans in the works for two phase 2 clinical trials. It’s preparing to enroll heart failure patients in a trial that it hopes further illustrates the efficacy of its technology. In addition, Juventas has already begun enrollment in a phase 2a trial that will assess the safety and efficacy of JVS-100 in critical limb ischemia patients.
Another Cleveland company founded by Penn, SironRX Therapeutics, is developing the JVS-100 technology for a different application: wound healing. The two companies share the same CEO, Rahul Aras.
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[Photo from flickr user kurtislizaandchauncey]