Positive Results From New Type 2 Diabetes Cell Therapy Trial
By Andrew Briskin
Researchers released early clinical trial results on an innovative cell treatment for people with type 2 diabetes. After one year, 93% of those who received the treatment safely reduced their insulin doses by at least 50%.
Creative Medical Technology, a biotech company, announced positive results from an ongoing clinical trial for its cell therapy program, CELZ-001.
Among 15 participants who received the treatment in the 30-person trial, 14 (93%) reduced their insulin requirement by 50% within a year, without any major health events.
CELZ-001 uses the same procedure as one of the company’s type 1 diabetes investigational treatments, known as CELZ-201.
Unlike some other cell therapies in the research pipeline for type 1 and type 2 diabetes, CELZ-201 hopes to revive the beta cells in the pancreas, as opposed to replacing them with new healthy cells.
The treatment is also being researched in people with type 1 diabetes in CREATE-1, an actively-recruiting phase 2 clinical trial.
The company’s approach is called AlloStem, and uses perinatal tissue-derived cells, or cells that come from the umbilical cord or placenta. Additionally, the treatment does not require people to take immunosuppressant drugs, minimizing the risk for various side effects.
The company has not released further details on how the treatment works, however, it has announced plans to further develop these programs and to present findings at an upcoming endocrinology conference.
"The positive one-year data from our type 2 diabetes study is very encouraging, and we are excited to engage with clinicians in further translation,” Timothy Warbington, company president and CEO, said in an announcement about the trial update. “Creative Medical Technology Holdings has a unique portfolio with multiple cell-based approaches that can potentially help patients with early-stage T1D, brittle T1D, and late-stage T2D."
