cord injury patients worldwide, including thousands in Saudi Arabia which has one of the highest rates of the paralyzing affliction, a US biotech firm announced Friday that it had been cleared to carry out the first human trials using embryonic stem cells on such patients. Geron Corp. said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had cleared it for the first phase of trials of a novel therapy called GRNOPC1. The Menlo Park, California firm hailed the step as “the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics.” Embryonic stem cells are highly versatile, primitive cells capable of developing into any tissue of the body. The goal is to inject cells into the spines of paralysed volunteers in the hope that this will prompt damaged nerve cells to regrow, enabling the patients to eventually recover feeling and movement. “The clearance enables Geron to move forward with the world's first study of a human embryonic stem cell based therapy in man,” Geron said. According to Dr. Yaqoub Al-Mazroua, Assistant Undersecretary for Curative Medicine at the Saudi Health Ministry, 1,500 people are struck with spinal cord injuries every year in the Kingdom, with the main causes related to hereditary diseases and automobile accidents. A majority of the spinal injury patients are victims of 270,000 car accidents that occur every year in Saudi Arabia, the highest in the GCC and Arab region, according to official statistics. Geron's announcement came less than three days after George W. Bush – who had imposed clamps on most federal funding on embryonic stem cell research -
