Why Cellect Biotech's Bone Marrow Transplantation Update Is Huge

Health and Healthcare

Published: May 11, 2020 9:58 am

Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (NASDAQ: APOP) shares nearly doubled to start the week after the company announced progress with its bone marrow transplantation process. This update came in the form of an article in Bone Marrow Transplantation, a peer-reviewed journal that is published on a monthly basis.

According to the paper, the pre-clinical research and demonstrated that engraftment is robust following transplantation of treated graft, and the graft retains its immune reconstitution and anti-leukemic effects.

Cellect initiated a Phase 1/2 study in adults undergoing stem cell transplant for the treatment of hematological malignancies. The primary endpoint of the study is to evaluate the overall incidence, frequency and severity of adverse events potentially related to ApoGraft at 180-days post-transplant. All patients transplanted through the present time using the ApoGraft process were engrafted and time to engraftment was similar to the standard of care.

So far, there have not been any safety and tolerability concerns during the study and patient enrollment is continuing. Both the principal investigator and independent data safety monitoring board agree that no serious adverse events reported during the course of the study were related to the ApoGraft process.

It’s worth pointing out here that the data from the pre-clinical research and published paper was included in the firm’s Investigational New Drug application, which was previously approved by the FDA in late 2019.

As it stands now, Cellect has received all the necessary approvals to initiate the trial with its academic partner, Washington University, and plans to begin patient recruitment once the COVID-19 pandemic is mitigated and clinics can resume normal practices.

Cellect Biotechnology stock traded up about 90% to $4.52 on Monday, within a 52-week range of $4.40 to $5.30.