LCT Parkinson’s trial resumes patient recruitment

LCT Parkinson’s trial resumes patient recruitment

23 June 2014 – Sydney, Australia & Auckland, New Zealand – Living Cell Technologies Limited today announced that it has received the necessary regulatory approval to resume recruitment of the remaining three patients in the Phase I/IIa clinical trial of NTCELL® in Parkinson’s disease. The trial was paused in December last year while the company completed internal and external audit and regulatory processes.

Dr Ken Taylor, NTCELL Program Director and Acting Chief Executive, is pleased that patient recruitment in the clinical trial of NTCELL for Parkinson’s can resume.

“The completion of the clinical trial is an initial step in progressing NTCELL to commercialisation as the first disease modifying treatment for Parkinson’s disease.”

Existing treatments for Parkinson’s treat the symptoms rather than attempting to regenerate the affected brain cells. Many people with Parkinson’s no longer respond to these treatments.

“LCT is committed to developing and marketing NTCELL for Parkinson’s patients not responding to current therapies. We also intend to further investigate the potential of our patented cell therapy as a treatment for other neurodegenerative disorders,” said Dr Taylor.

Preclinical studies which confirmed NTCELL initiated nerve growth support the development of NTCELL as a potential treatment for other neurological diseases such as Huntington’s, Motor Neuron and Alzheimer’s.

For further information: www.lctglobal.com

About Living Cell Technologies
Living Cell Technologies (LCT) is an Australasian biotechnology company researching and developing cell therapies to treat diseases with high unmet clinical need. LCT’s lead product NTCELL® is an alginate coated capsule containing clusters of neonatal porcine choroid plexus cells. After transplantation NTCELL functions as a biological factory producing nerve growth factors to promote new central nervous system growth and repair disease induced nerve degeneration.

NTCELL is in Phase I/IIa clinical trial in New Zealand for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. It has the potential to be used in a number of indications.

LCT’s proprietary encapsulation technology, IMMUPEL™, allows cell therapies to be used without the need for co-treatment with drugs that suppress the immune system.

LCT is listed on the Australian (ASX: LCT) and US (OTCQX: LVCLY) stock exchanges. The company is incorporated in Australia, with its research and development, operations and manufacturing facilities based in New Zealand.

For more information visit www.lctglobal.com or follow @lctglobal on Twitter

ENDS

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