AlloCure Inc. Stem Cell Trial Provides Glimpse of Promising Treatment for Kidney Damage

Ever since nephrologist Robert Brenner joined Burlington, MA-based AlloCure in 2010, he’s been eager to find out how the company’s experimental stem-cell treatment for acute kidney injury would perform in people. Last week, he got his first hint of the answer—and it was a positive one. On Nov. 12, AlloCure presented results from a Phase 1 study of its treatment at Kidney Week 2011, the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, held in Philadelphia. There were 16 patients in the trial, and it was mostly designed to test the safety of the cells, which are found in adult bone marrow. But AlloCure also used the trial as an opportunity to measure efficacy, by comparing how the patients fared after the treatment to so-called historical controls—people who had suffered from acute kidney injury (AKI) in the past but not been given the cell treatment.