Asterias Biotherapeutics to Begin Dose Escalation in SCiStar Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial of AST-OPC1 for Complete Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT:

) today announced that its Data Monitoring Committee has reviewed the initial safety data from all three patients in the first cohort and has recommended dose escalation to the second cohort.  Recruitment for the second cohort will begin immediately, with a planned enrollment of five patients who will each receive 10 million cells of AST-OPC1 (oligodendrocyte progenitor cells).  The SCiStar Study is a Phase 1/2a clinical trial evaluating the safety and activity of escalating doses of AST-OPC1 in newly injured patients with sensory and motor complete cervical spinal cord injury (SCI).  The three patients in the first cohort were administered a low dose of 2 million AST-OPC1 cells and have completed at least 30 days of follow up for safety.  The results of the trial continue to support a positive safety profile for AST-OPC1, with no serious adverse events observed to date in any of the three treated patients. The first patient in this cohort was dosed at Shepherd Center in Atlanta