Closely-held CellProthera, in collaboration with BioCardia (NASDAQ:BCDA), announced success from a collaborative Phase II trial of ProtheraCytes for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The companies plan to continue the collaboration into Phase III.
Transendocardial administration of CellProthera’s ProtheraCytes, using BioCardia’s percutaneous catheter delivery system, was associated with a significant improvement in the viability of segments from baseline to six months, a consistent positive trend of improvement of LV volumes at six months, and a faster decrease in NTproBNP, an important biomarker of heart failure.
In a statement, Matthieu de Kalbermatten, CEO of CellProthera, said, “The promising results of the study confirm the potential of our therapy to provide an effective one-off solution to prevent heart failure progression in AMI patients.”
Additionally, Peter Altman, Ph.D., president and CEO of BioCardia, said, “The EXCELLENT trial has meaningful results for patient benefit using an approach that we feel makes enormous sense for locally administered high effective dosage of autologous CD34+ cells for these patients.”
