Behind the Scenes of the World’s First Commercial Stem-Cell Therapy

March 3, 2015

(Nature) – Last month saw a major landmark for regenerative medicine: the first time that a stem-cell therapy — beside the use of cells extracted from umbilical cords — had been cleared for sale by any regulatory agency in the world. The European Commission approved Holoclar for use in cases of blindness caused by burning. The achievement is all the more remarkable because Holoclar was developed by a small laboratory in Italy, a country better known for its lack of support for life sciences — and for its recent tolerance of an unproven stem-cell concoction, marketed by the Stamina Foundation, that claimed to be a panacea for many diseases.