DiscGenics, Inc., a privately funded spinal therapeutics company located in Salt Lake City, Utah, has successfully completed an animal study that demonstrates the safety of its product designed to reduce back pain caused by degenerative disc disease. The product is called Injectable Discosphere Cell Therapy (IDCT), a substance produced from adult human disc stem cells which is injected into degenerated discs. Company officials say that after one injection of IDCT in degenerated discs there is a restoration of disc height and tissue architecture and no inflammatory response.
Injectable Disc Therapy Passes Safety Test
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DiscGenics CEO Flagg Flanagan said, “We are very encouraged by the results of the small animal pilot study as it shows the initial safety and efficacy of IDCT. We are optimistic that these early results will be indicative of our therapy’s performance in further animal studies and will accelerate us toward human clinical studies and, ultimately, to an FDA cleared product. We believe this technology will revolutionize the way back pain is treated.” DiscGenics is currently conducting further studies of safety and efficacy in multiple animal species to support future scientific publications and to gain regulatory clearance.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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