All of the political propaganda about stem cell research and accusations that the Bush administration is "anti-science" because of denying federal subsidy to embryonic stem cell research fails to notice the advances and promise of adult stem cells. Three companies I think have promise in this area. (I have holdings in all three in another account.)
1. Aastrom Biosciences (www.aastrom.com, ASTM) has a collection of potential therapeutics including a phase III trial on Bone Repair Cells for osteonecrosis of the hip (Floyd Landis, cyclist; Brett Favre, QB; Bo Jackson, Football/Baseball all had or have this according to Wikipedia) The company also has programs at various stages on vascular, neural, and cardiac regeneration. The technology harvests bone marrow cells from the patient, creates autologous (meaning from one's own self) stem cells which are then reinjected to the target site. ASTM is in the $0.40 range and in danger of being delisted from NASDAQ (I bought all the way down from 1.42) so is very risky, obviously. The company was proposing a reverse split to get the stock price above a buck, but not enough shareholders voted, so they are exploring other options. Market Cap of ~55M.
2. Osiris Therapeutics (www.osiristx.com, OSIR) This company also obtains material from bone marrow but in this case, carefully screened donors. They have a product actively marketed called Osteocel which is used by orthopedic surgeons to fill in bone gaps without having to take healthy bone from another part of the patient's body (like the fibula.) In clinical trials are Chondrogen for regeneration of knee meniscus and prevention of osteoarthritis, and Prochymal for various obscure conditions like graft versus host disease (a complication of bone marrow transplantation) but also more common conditions like Crohn's disease and myocardial infarction. OSIR is trading at 13.5 and a Market Cap of 421M.
3. Cytori Therapeutics (www.cytoritx.com, CYTX) The source of stem cells is the patients own fat. (What more can you ask for? They suck out fat and put back stem cells!) The turnaround time is apparently an hour or so for fat derived stem cells, in distinction to bone marrow, which can take days or weeks to culture. Their technology is called Celution (get it? "solution"). The company reported good results in the technique for breast augmentation. It could potentially be used for reconstruction post mastectomy, where there are clinical trials in planning stages. There are also planned studies for myocardial infarction, including acute MI where autologous fat derived stem cells are injected into the coronary arteries to see if this limits damage. Cytori is trading at 7.10 with a Cap of 185M.
Obviously, this is only an introduction of what's out there and I would certainly encourage some more research before putting money into these companies, none of which are profitable. I've decided to establish positions with money I can 100% lose (also a criterion for me for buying options!), with the hope of at least one hitting on a huge breakthrough, for example a treatment for MI. Also, I could see any of them as takeover targets for big Pharma, struggling in the face of drug patent expirations. These companies tend to trade in tandem with all stem cell companies, including selling off with perceived negative political news about embryonic stem cells, which doesn't apply in the adult realm. The fear of establishing a market for the production of embryos for destruction understandably causes angst to many, and I think it benefits purely adult companies to be free of this issue.
