ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Stem cell company, Neuralstem, Inc. , today announced it has entered into a collaborative agreement with the ALS Clinic at University of Michigan Health System, directed by Dr. Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., the De Jong Professor of Neurology at the U-M Medical School. The goal of the collaboration is to provide further proof-of-principle data to move Neuralstem’s spinal cord stem cells into patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a motor neuron disease, which strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70. As many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.
“We are honored and excited to be working with Dr. Feldman and the University of Michigan ALS Clinic,” said Neuralstem CEO, Richard Garr. “It is not only a world class research organization, but also clearly dedicated to, and deeply involved in, the care and treatment of the ALS patients themselves. Dr. Feldman and her team will be a tremendous partner in helping us to achieve our goal, which is to be able to treat ALS patients with our Neuralstem cells.”
“We are excited about working with Neuralstem’s technology and exploring the ways in which it might lead to treatment for ALS patients,” said Dr. Feldman, who is also the Director at the U-M Program for Neurology Research and Discovery, “At the Michigan ALS clinic, we are working as hard and as fast as we can to try to find treatments for this terrible disease.”
About Neuralstem
Neuralstem’s patent-protected technology enables, for the first time, the ability to produce neural stem cells of the human brain and spinal cord in commercial quantities, and the ability to control the differentiation of these cells into mature, physiologically relevant human neurons and glia. The Company expects that its first Investigational New Drug (IND) application will be for the treatment of Ischemic Paraplegia, a form of paraplegia that sometimes results from the surgery to repair aortic aneurysms and for which there is no effective treatment. The Company hopes to submit its initial IND application to the FDA and begin its first human trial during calendar year 2007.
Major Central Nervous System diseases targeted by the Company with research programs currently underway include: Ischemic Paraplegia, Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury, ALS, and Parkinson’s disease. The company’s cells recently extended the life of rats with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in a paper published in the journal TRANSPLANTATION, and were deemed viable for continued work in neurodegenerative spinal conditions. Neuralstem cells also recently reversed paralysis in rats with Ischemic Spastic Paraplegia, a form of paralysis that can result from the surgery to repair aortic aneurysms, as reported in NEUROSCIENCE (http://www.neuroscience-ibro.com/ ). The company has also developed immortalized human neural stem cells for in-vitro use in drug development for the academic and pharmaceutical markets. For further information, please visit http://www.neuralstem.com .
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information
This presentation may contain forward-looking information about Neuralstem, Inc. which are intended to be covered by the safe harbor for forward-looking statements provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward- looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements can be identified by the use of forward- looking terminology such as “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “project,” “plan,” “seek,” “intend,” or “anticipate” or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, and include discussions of strategy, and statements about industry trends and Neuralstem’s future performance, operations and products. This and other “Risk Factors” contained in Neuralstem’s public filings with the SEC should be read in connection with this release. For further information on Neuralstem, please review the company’s filings with the SEC including its Annual Report filed on Form 10-KSB for the period ended December 31, 2006, as well as the company’s subsequent filings.
Neuralstem, Inc.
CONTACT: Richard Garr, President Neuralstem, Inc., +1-301-366-4960; Media,Deanne Eagle of Planet Communications, +1-917-837-5866; Investor Relations,Ira Weingarten, +1-805-897-1880, or Steve Chizzik, +1-908-688-9111, both ofEquity Communications
