It's been a year since President Obama lifted the Bush administration's restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Nevertheless, religious opponents of the research still claim that embryonic stem cells have yet to yield any treatments. They insist that adult stem cell research will render embryonic stem cell research unnecessary.
Well, guess what?
The Religious Right's position on this recently took a big hit with this news:
Massachusetts based biotech company Advanced Cell Technology recently announced that the FDA has granted orphan drug status to MA09-hRPE - an embryonic stem cell derived treatment for a specific form of blindness (Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy). Orphan drug status is targeted to those therapies which are designed to treat fewer than 200,000 Americans and gives ACT access to tax credits, grants for clinical trials, and a seven year exclusivity to market MA09-hRPE. This is the first such FDA approval for an embryonic stem cell derived therapy and ACT plans on using the orphan drug status to accelerate clinical testing. While Advanced Cell Technology has something of a checkered past, this recent FDA status could signal not only an approaching success for the MA09-hRPE treatment, but also a promising advancement in the company's goal to pioneer new forms of regenerative medicine.
But even as this good news demolishes the Religious Right's argument, it is not the first research to lead to potential treatments. Early last year it was reported that "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the go-ahead for Geron Corporation to start a phase I safety trial of its therapy GRNOPC1 for spinal cord injuries." And prior to that, in 2008 Dr. Robert Lanza was able to create human blood from embryonic stem cells.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/3/7/183050/3740/Front_Page/When_the_Truth_Is_Shown_to_Be_Lies
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