Skip to main content

Compliance Requirements for Stem Cell Trials

BayBiotech.NET

Stem Cell Therapy although holds promises for the treatment of many diseases, this is an area not much explored yet and many countries worldwide are drafting the guidelines for conducting safer clinical trials. Therefore, it is accepted widely that prior to conducting clinical trials with stem cells a stronger than usual proof of concept may be required for the safety and efficacy of the therapy.

One of the major concerns is the rapid cell division cycles of such cells that may lead to tumor generation. Thus, it is recommended that the dose of administered cells to humans must be well adjusted to below the minimum number of cells observed to form tumors in animal models.
Due to many unanswered questions regarding the safe use of stem cells a long-term follow-ups and Biovigilance must be planned carefully before starting a trial.

In October, 2009,Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), FDA, has issued a draft guidance to potential sponsors (cord blood banks, or registries, and individual physicians serving as sponsor-investigators) to assist in the submission of an investigational new drug application (IND) for certain unlicensed (not in accordance with 21CFR 601) hematopoietic progenitor cells, cord (HPC-C), that are needed for treatment of a patient with a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and there is no satisfactory alternative treatment.

The draft guidance is available at the following link: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/Blood/UCM187146.pdf

Sponsors are encouraged to send in IND and BLA (Biological License Applications) as soon as possible to allow sufficient time for review, comment, and resubmission as needed to complete all actions by the end of this 2 yr period.

Since the cell/ gene therapies are emerging prime areas, a worldwide effort is ongoing for prospective harmonization and convergence of regulatory approaches. Several countries within European Commission as well as other part of the world are working closely via exchange of guidelines to evolve successful strategies for acceptance and harmonization of such therapies.

A world wide map on stem cell guidelines is available at: http://www.mbbnet.umn.edu/scmap.html.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Group C (Treatment IND) Drugs

BayBiotech.NET Since 1976, National Cancer Institute (NCI) in agreement with FDA has established the Group C classification system to allow access to certain drugs for the cancer patients specifically falling under a category that adequate alternative therapy or if the available alternative therapy has significant toxic effects. Each Group C drug protocol specifies patient eligibility and drug use information. Group C drugs are provided only to properly trained physicians who have registered themselves with NCI using a special form to assure that their patient qualifies under guidelines - or protocols - for the drug. Physicians using drugs under Group C have no reporting requirements to the NCI other than the obligation to report adverse drug reactions. Group C drugs are provided free of charge, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provides coverage for care associated with Group C therapy. Making Group C drugs available to the critically ill patients not only provi...

Good Machine Learning Practices

BayBiotech.NET A joint effort by FDA,  United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Health Canada have developed guiding principles to help promote utilization of medical devices that are safe and effective and utilize artiificial intelligence and machine learning. To find out more details check out the link here!

A New Clinical Trial Platform

BayBiotech.NET The Medpedia Project has established a platform ‘Medpedia Clinical Trials’ for patients, researchers and physicians to receive information about the thousands of clinical trials that are in process or about to begin worldwide. The information on various clinical trials is updated regularly from ClinicalTrials.gov and can be searched using different attributes with basic and advanced search functionalities. Medpedia Clinical Trials platform allows visitors to leave their comments, thoughts and views on a specific clinical trial page. Most importantly, a personalized feed can also be obtained if someone is interested in learning more about on-going or about to start clinical trials on a particular condition worldwide. Moreover, if you are reading a Medpedia article on a particular clinical condition, the information on the related clinical trials are fed automatically alongside the article page. To learn more about it visit http://www.medpedia.com/clinical-trials .