ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 17, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASTM), a leading regenerative medicine company, today announced plans to initiate a 40 patient U.S. Phase II clinical trial to study the use of Cardiac Repair Cells (CRCs), a mixture of stem and progenitor cells derived from a patient's own bone marrow, for the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a severe form of chronic heart failure. Aastrom is now authorized under U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regulations to initiate its first Investigational New Drug (IND) clinical trial for cardiac regeneration. CRCs, manufactured using Aastrom's Tissue Repair Cell (TRC) technology, previously received Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for the treatment of DCM.
