Letter to BusinessWeek Magazine: Setting the Record Straight on Adult Stem Cells

I'd like to thank BusinessWeek Magazine for printing the following letter to the editor regarding our patient, Calvin Miller.

Read Letter at BusinessWeek.com

Setting The Record Straight On Adult Stem Cells

I would like to clarify information in "Biotech, finally" (News: Analysis & Commentary, June 13): Calvin Miller was the first off-trial patient treated by Siriraj Hospital in Thailand with adult stem cells harvested by a process pioneered by TheraVitae Ltd. This process does not use bone marrow. We draw 250cc of blood and expand the cells in the laboratory for about a week. Then they are implanted back into the patient. We can get the cells by drawing a small amount of blood instead of doing a painful bone marrow extraction. This process will soon allow the use of adult stem cells for treatment on a large scale.

Jay D. Lenner Jr.
TheraVitae Ltd.
Bangkok

BusinessWeek Magazine Features Adult Stem Cell Therapy Patient Calvin Miller

The first private patient to receive VesCell adult stem cell therapy, Mr. Calvin Miller, was featured in BusinessWeek magazine this week: Biotech, Finally

It’s great to see adult stem cell therapy in a magazine such as BusinessWeek but unfortunately, the article mentioned neither TheraVitae nor VesCell. It said that Dr. Amit Patel from The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center treated Calvin during a clinical trial with adult stem cells harvested from bone marrow. Dr. Patel occassionally works with Cardiologists in Bangkok in purely advisory and superviory roles, but Calvin has not participated in any of Dr. Patel's trials.

The article incorrectly stated that the stem cells utilized in Calvin’s case were harvested from his bone marrow.

Actually, they were harvested from about 250 cc of blood that was drawn from Calvin’s arm. The stem cells were expanded in TheraVitae’s laboratory in Israel, couriered back to Thailand and then implanted into one of his coronary arteries via catheter. This made Calvin the first private heart patient in the world to be treated with autologous adult stem cells harvested from peripheral blood as far as I know.

I have been in correspondence with BusinessWeek Magazine regarding these issues and I hope to see my letter to the editor in this week’s upcoming issue. I’d also like to point out that BusinessWeek has been very responsive to my emails over the past week.

Thank you, BusinessWeek.

US Heart Patients Being Treated with Adult Stem Cells in Thailand

Here is a link to the Official Press Release: Cell Therapy in Thailand featuring Dr. Valentin Fulga, CEO of TheraVitae Ltd. and Prof. Suphachai Chaithiraphan, President of The Heart Association of Thailand.