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Global Stem Cells Group Subsidiary Adimarket to Launch Progenikine™ SVF Closed System

Global Stem Cells Group subsidiary Adimarket is preparing to launch Progenikine™, a new SVF closed system kit utilizing EmCyte technology, containing all the elements necessary to process adipose tissue and obtain stromal vascular fraction in a sterile environment.

MIAMI, May 31—Adimarket, a subsidiary of Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. is preparing to launch Progenikine™, its new and approved SVF closed system kit using EmCyte technology, and is expected to be available to physicians in July, 2016. The Progenikine kit contains all the elements necessary to process adipose tissue and obtain stromal vascular fraction (SVF) in a closed environment.

Adipose derived stem cells (ASCs) are used by physicians for a variety of indications. Most commonly, ASCs are isolated at the point of care from lipoaspirate (derived from liposuction) tissue as the stromal vascular fraction (SVF), harvested from the patient and immediately administered to the patient as an injection, or used to enrich fat grafts. Isolation of ASCs from adipose tissue is a relatively simple process performed routinely in cell biology laboratories, but isolation at the point of care for immediate clinical administration requires special methodology to prevent contamination, ensure integrity of the clinical procedure, and comply with regulatory requirements.

Developed in conjunction with Patrick Pennie, Emcyte CEO, and Maritza Novas Director of Research and Development for Global Stem Cells Group, Progenikine fuses elements from Emcyte systems with the Global Stem cells Group SVF protocols. The kit can provide a low cost, rapid and

simple alternative to traditional methods of isolating ASCs, particularly when smaller quantities are needed.

“We’re excited to launch the Progenikine kit, the newest product designed to help Global Stem Cells Group’s fulfill its m

ission to provide accessible products to our member clients,” says Benito Novas, CEO of Global Stem Cells Group. “These are the milestones that bring us closer to ensuring that more patients will be able to gain access to stem cell therapies.”

To learn more about the Progenikine kit, visit the Global Stem Cells Group website, email bnovas@stemcellsgroup.com, or call 305-560-5337.

About Global Stem Cells Group:

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. is the parent company of six wholly owned operating companies dedicated entirely to stem cell research, training, products and solutions. Find experienced insulation contractors at alliedexperts.com/ company in New Jersey. Founded in 2012, the company combines dedicated researchers, physician and patient educators and solution providers with the shared goal of meeting the growing worldwide need for leading edge stem cell treatments and solutions.

With a singular focus on this exciting new area of medical research, Global Stem Cells Group and its subsidiaries are uniquely positioned to become global leaders in cellular medicine.

Global Stem Cells Groups corporate mission is to make the promise of stem cell medicine a reality for patients around the world. With each of GSCGs six operating companies focused on a separate research-based mission, the result is a global network of state-of-the-art stem cell treatments.

About Adimarket:

Adimarket, Inc., a division of the Global Stem Cells Group, is a cost-competitive online marketplace for quality regenerative medicine equipment and supplies for physicians and health care professionals.

Adimarket was founded to provide physicians and other health care professionals the tools they need to practice regenerative medicine in a medical office setting. And we always looking for experienced remodeling contractors in California. Motivated by a firm belief in the impact the practice of stem cell medicine can have when dispensed in a doctor’s office, Adimarket provides physicians with the tools they need to provide patients with cutting edge treatments.

Adimarket’s experienced customer service representatives provide valuable guidance and advice regarding products relevant to individual practices.

About Emcyte:

Fort Myers, Florida-based EmCyte Corporation is a leader in autologous cellular biologics with the GenesisCS Component Concentrating Systems. These systems provide patients with the best opportunity for rapid recovery an

d provide practitioners with the most advanced clinical point of care experience. EmCyte systems are developed to meet every clinical requirement, giving the physician better clinical choices. EmCyte devices have been independently reviewed and show to produce buffycoat concentrations of 6x to greater than 10x baseline in 7mLs, with yields ranging from 70 percent to greater than 90 percent

EmCyte technology allows for the safe extraction of concentrated platelets and other regenerative cell types from the patient’s own blood. These cells are then re-suspended in a small volume of the patient’s blood plasma and then applied to the treatment site.

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Gordie Howe’s Stem Cells Treatments Support a Growing Appeal for These Therapies Among Athletes and Baby Boomers

In October, 2014, legendary hockey player Gordie Howe, then 86, was on death’s door after suffering a debilitating acute hemorrhagic, left thalamus stroke. Upon returning home from the hospital, Howe needed someone to lift him from his bed to a wheelchair and back. He couldn’t remember the names of his four children, Marty, Mark, Cathy, and Murray, and his condition continued to grow worse in subsequent weeks. According to an article in New York Magazine, when Mark took his father to get an epidural to relieve his back pain, the attending physician took one look at Gordie and asked Mark if it might be better to just let his father go. On the rare occasion when Gordie did manage to speak, he would tell his children, “Just take me out back and shoot me.”

The man for whom the term “hat trick” was coined, Howe retired from hockey at age 52 after four decades of professional play, having scored more goals than any other NHL player.  But over the past 10 years, his health declined dramatically—heart disease, dementia, and spinal stenosis—despite his family’s and physician’s best efforts to find medical solutions. After his stroke, Keith Olbermann aired a preemptive obituary on ESPN. The family made funeral plans. Murray, his youngest son, wrote a eulogy.

Experimental stem cell treatment

Around Thanksgiving, 2015, Howe’s family learned about an experimental stem cell treatment that could save his life. The plan was to inject up to 100 million neural stem cells into his spinal column in the hopes that the stem cells would migrate to his brain and help his body repair itself. Howe could improve within 24 hours, and receive the treatment anytime—just not in the United States. The procedure wasn’t FDA-approved, and Howe would have to receive the treatment at a clinic in Tijuana.

Howe’s son Murray, a radiologist, looked into the treatment and thought it was promising. The real concern was transporting the immobile Howe to Mexico. Daughter Cathy worried that he might die during the treatment, but Mark responded bluntly: “If he does die, what’s the difference? He’s going to be gone soon no matter what.”

While the family weighed the stem cell treatment idea, Howe was admitted to the hospital with severe dehydration, caused by his unwillingness to swallow. When he returned home, he still had no use of his right side, and the family assumed he would never walk again. The Howe children decided to give the stem cell treatments a try.

Two days later, the Howes flew their Dad to San Diego. In the air, Gordie grew agitated and got the attention of a flight attendant, who spent 10 minutes kneeling by his seat trying to understand something he wanted to tell her. Due to his profound memory loss, Howe didn’t know he had suffered a stroke, why he was on a plane, or where he was going. But he remembered one thing, which he managed to whisper to the fight attendant: “I was a pro hockey player.”

The next morning, Marty and Murray drove with their father across the border to Clínica Santa Clarita, where Gordie bent over a table to expose his lower back so that a needle could be inserted into his spinal canal to inject the stem cells. Howe was given two types of stem cells – neural stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells. The second type, derived from bone marrow, has anti-inflammatory properties and secretes chemicals that promote healing.

The procedure then required Howe to lie prone for eight hours. After the eight hours passed, Gordie told Murray he needed to use the bathroom and that he intended to walk there in order to do so. Since the stroke, Gordie had only managed to walk one time—10 steps, with a walker. Murray reminded his Dad that he couldn’t walk.

Recovery milestone after stem cell treatment

Howe stood up, and with Murray’s support, walked for the first time in more than a month—to the bathroom. This milestone became an oft-repeated story among the Howe family, and Gordie’s revival became an irresistible story for the sports pages. Back home, Gordie returned to something resembling the normal life of an 86-year-old. He pushed the grocery cart, helped with the dishes, and could go fishing so long as one of his sons reminded him that a tug on the line meant he needed to start reeling. The family released a video of Gordie standing stationary, firing a puck, five-hole, past his 8-year-old great-grandson. Keith Olbermann apologized for his premature obituary.

Howe’s children now had to figure out how to share his apparent recovery—a debate that proved just as contentious as their decision to fly him to Mexico for the treatment in the first place—with the world. Both Marty and Mark had played in the NHL alongside their father, but now Murray, the doctor, was giving interviews in his hospital scrubs, endorsing his father’s place in medical “miracle” history. He began referring to the stem-cell treatment as the “Gordie Howe Protocol,” and said that his Toledo-based hospital was looking into conducting an FDA-approved study of the procedure. In one interview, Murray Howe stated that “stem cells are the most promising thing in medicine since the discovery of antibiotics.”

As the story spread, the medical community started to question just how miraculous Howe’s recovery had been.

“Companies selling these products are preying on desperate and vulnerable people and exploiting their hope, much like snake-oil salesmen have done throughout most of human history,” wrote Judy Illes and Fabio Rossi, stem-cell experts at the University of British Columbia, in the Vancouver Sun. Even advocates pointed out that, though the field holds great promise, no reputable studies have shown that such a procedure should work.

And yet, for the children of ailing parents, such skepticism doesn’t matter. Murray’s response to one skeptic was, “What would you do for your father?”

Gordie Howe’s therapy would cost an average patient about $30,000.

Athletes, whether playing or retired, have a special need for the regenerative capacity that stem cells are believed to provide. Athletes break bones, strain ligaments, bash knees and wear out cartilage. If stem cells’ restorative capability is proven, they could be considered the latest form of sports medicine.

Since Howe’s treatment in late 2014, two other athletic legends have received stem cell treatments—former quarterbacks Bart Starr and John Brodie. And the rest of the population, particularly aging baby boomers, isn’t far behind.

Still, while acceptance of stem cell therapy has grown, so have controversies surrounding its use. While clinical trials authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are rapidly expanding in the U.S., so are treatments outside the regulated system. Patients are going to stem cell clinics in other countries that approve stem cell therapies.

For its part, the FDA is drafting guidelines, although the U.S. and Canada still trail other countries in approving stem cell treatments.

Last year, the FDA issued draft guidelines to clarify what types of human cell therapy it regulates. The short answer: Most of them, with “limited exceptions,” according to an FDA email sent in response to questions from The San Diego Union-Tribune. These exceptions include cells or tissues that are “minimally manipulated,” not given with any other product and perform the same function in the donor as in the recipient.

All other stem cell therapies are seen as involving human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based products – also known as HCT/Ps – regulated by the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

“We understand that determining the appropriate regulatory path for HCT/Ps can be challenging, and the FDA is working diligently to develop guidance to help sponsors and physicians understand how to apply federal regulations to this complex and emerging field,” the agency said.

In January 2015, University of California, Davis stem cell researcher and blogger Paul Knoepfler estimated that more than 100 unauthorized stem cell clinics were operating in the United States. Later that year, he increased that estimate to up to 200.

Then on May 6, he wrote in his blog: “We are seeing a flood of professional athletes getting stem cell treatments in the past few years.”

Athletes and others who want these treatments bristle at what they call cumbersome, time-consuming regulations in the U.S. The situation can be urgent for seriously ill patients.

While it hasn’t been proven that the stem cells enabled his recovery, by all indications Gordie Howe’s health has improved significantly since receiving stem cell treatments. In November, 2015, Murray Howe said that his father’s physicians in the U.S. recommended hospice care in the weeks after the stroke, and the family was told he wouldn’t last more than two or three weeks,

“Then, suddenly, he is raking and sweeping and goofing around in the back yard,” Murray said.

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Sources: The San Diego Union-Tribune, New York Magazine

Stem Cell Treatments Normally Used for Cancer Patients are Helping Multiple Sclerosis Patients

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently reported that stem cell transplant treatments normally used for cancer patients are helping Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients in the UK. According to the January 18, 2016 report, 20 patients received bone marrow stem cell transplants using their own stem cells, and that at least some of the patients who were paralyzed by MS are able to walk again post-treatment.

Approximately100,000 people in the United Kingdom suffer from MS, with most new patients diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 30 years of age.

“To have a treatment which can potentially reverse disability is really a major achievement,” says Prof Basil Sharrack, of Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, England.

The treatment, known as autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), involves the intravenous infusion of autologous or allogeneic stem cells harvested from the patient’s own bone marrow to reestablish hematopoietic function (formation of blood or blood cells) in patients whose bone marrow or immune system is damaged or defective by chemotherapy. Using stem cells harvested from the patient’s bone marrow helps rebuild the immune system. The theory is that these newly harvested cells are at such an early stage in development that the cellular defects that result in MS do not exist.

“The immune system is being reset or rebooted back to a time point before it caused MS,” says Prof John Snowden, consultant hematologist at Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

The BBC’s Panorama program spoke to several MS patients who have undergone the stem cell transplant.

Steven Storey was diagnosed with MS in 2013 and, within a year, went from being an able-bodied athlete to wheelchair dependent and losing sensation in much of his body.

“I went from running marathons to needing 24-hour acute care. At one point I couldn’t even hold a spoon and feed myself,” Storey says.

Within a few days of the transplant Storey was able to move his toes, and after four months he could stand unaided.

While Storey still needs a wheelchair for mobility, he calls his progress astounding.

“It’s been incredible,” he says. “I was in a dire place, but now I can swim and cycle and I am determined to walk.”

The Royal Hallamshire Hospital along with hospitals in the United States, Sweden and Brazil, is part of an international clinical trial called MIST that is assessing the long-term benefits of the stem cell procedure on MS patients. Study participants all have relapsing remitting MS (RRMS), and received intensive chemotherapy to completely destroy the patients’ immune systems.

Treatment costs are about the same as the annual cost for existing treatments, and the stem cell treatment does not require the use of new or existing medications.

Prof Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago carried out the first hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for MS in 1995, and is coordinating this current MIST international trial, which began in 2006.

“There has been resistance to this in the pharma and academic world,” Burt says. “This is not a technology you can patent and we have achieved this without industry backing.”

A study published last year involving MS patients in Chicago showed significant reductions in neurological disability, and for some the improvements persisted for at least four years, although there was no comparative control group.

The outcomes of the current international trial will be reported in 2018, and may determine whether the stem cell transplant becomes a standard in the United Kingdoms health care system for many MS patients.

“Ongoing research suggests stem cell treatments such as HSCT could offer hope, and it’s clear that in the cases highlighted by Panorama they’ve had a life-changing impact,” says Emma Gray, M.D., head of clinical trials at UK’s MS Society.