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Visit Doctor for Stem Cell Therapy? It May Happen

Chris Calhoun believes it won’t be uncommon one day for patients to walk into a doctor’s office for stem cell therapy and in a matter of a couple of hours, walk out ready to return to the daily grind.

The just-turned-40, unlikely biotechnology entrepreneur and chief executive officer of San Diego’s Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., said he has founded one of the world’s only companies to derive stem cells from fat tissue. Calhoun has said the company’s model of using one’s own fat tissue , instead of embryos or bone marrow , to retrieve the cells, lends itself better to the market because he says it will be faster and cheaper. In addition, since the cells are not from a foreign source, Calhoun has said there could be less chance for the body to reject them. The source also avoids the moral argument over stem cell retrieval from embryos.

The company presented data last week at the American Heart Association’s annual Scientific Sessions in Dallas, one of the largest conventions for scientists and health care professionals devoted to cardiovascular disease and stroke, according to the association.

While Cytori’s studies are in early stages, or preclinical, the company was able to announce that a trial showed when stem cells derived from fat tissue were applied to the heart after severe heart attacks in rats, the heart had a significant increase in the amount of oxygenated blood supplied to the tissue. Results released this fall from a study among pigs showed that the stem cells helped the heart muscle strengthen faster after a serious heart attack. Pigs that didn’t get the stem cells had more scarring on their hearts, said Calhoun.

Cytori recently signed a $30 million deal with Japan-based Olympus Corp. to miniaturize, rebrand and market a machine Cytori has dubbed “Celution System.” The device extracts stem cells from fat tissue in about an hour. Calhoun said the company hopes to sell the device to hospitals, and eventually physicians offices and others.

“I think, ultimately, it ends up all around the world,” said Calhoun, who received most of his scientific training years ago as a lab tech-turned-researcher after the lab’s head resigned. He studied bones for eight years, and gained an interest in regenerative tissue.

In college, Calhoun studied economics, and he says he has always been on the lookout for ideas around which to form a company.

“The technology is real. It has the potential,” he said of Celution System and deriving stem cells from fat tissue.

He might not be that far off: The company was recently featured in The New York Times Magazine in an article about women using stem cell therapy in Europe to reduce the signs of aging, such as facial lines.

While Cytori, founded in 1996 as MacroPore Biosurgery, is coming to a close on its preclinical studies on stem cells derived from fat tissue, it has already filed more than 100 patents on its Celution System.

The 120-member company reported $4.7 million in revenues for nine months ending Sept. 30. Cytori has $10.5 million in cash, and has filed to become public in America. Cytori trades on the Frankfort Stock Exchange in Germany.

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FDA Approval: San Diego-based PrimaPharm, Inc., has gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration for Hydase, an injection used to facilitate dispersion and absorption of other injected drugs.

The drug will be marketed by Laguna Hills-based Keystone Pharmaceuticals, Inc., beginning in early 2006. The FDA approved the drug late last month.

PrimaPharm is a private, specialty manufacturing company that offers several services to the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic products and cosmetics industries.

The company, founded in 1992, already has other products on the market, including eye care products.


Contact Katie Weeks with biotechnology news at kweeks@sdbj.com, or call her at (858) 277-6359.

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