Regenerative medicine company encouraged by heart failure trial

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.

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.

[Photo from flickr user kurtislizaandchauncey]