BioCardia enrolls first patient in CardiALLO phase I/II clinical trial of BCDA-03 to treat ischemic heart failure of reduced ejection fraction

BioCardia, Inc, a developer of cellular and cell-derived therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, has announced that the first patient was enrolled and treated in its CardiALLO allogeneic mesenchymal cell therapy phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of patients with New York Heart Association Class II and III ischemic heart failure of reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

These “off the shelf” mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) utilized for the study treatment are immunomodulatory with potential for impact on inflammatory processes in heart failure and have been shown to release multiple critical angiogenic factors that can enhance microvascular function and capillary networks in ischemic tissues. They are closely related to the mesenchymal cell used in our previous experience with HFrEF patients, which demonstrated significant and durable reduction in infarct size and enhanced left ventricular ejection fraction following a single dose. 

The first patient was enrolled at the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Florida at Gainesville under the leadership of Dr. Carl Pepine, MD, Professor of Medicine as the trial’s National Principal Investigator, and Dr. David Anderson, Professor of Medicine and Director of Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Catheterization Lab, as the treating physician and study site’s Principal Investigator.

“Ischemic heart failure is a common outcome in people who have had previous vascular disease and patients are at increased risk for accelerated decline and serious complications associated with their condition,” said Debby Holmes Higgin, BioCardia’s Vice President of Clinical. “CardiALLO mesenchymal stem cell therapy offers the potential of a one-time treatment to provide immune modulation and paracrine signaling benefits to the microvasculature as a treatment to improve patient outcomes.”

The CardiALLO mesenchymal cell study is a dose escalation phase I safety study to be followed by a phase II randomized double-blind controlled study to assess therapeutic benefit or efficacy. In phase I, the study calls for at least nine New York Heart Association Class II or III HFrEF patients to be initially enrolled, with an additional 60 patients enrolled in phase II. For phase I, three patients are to be treated at each of three escalating doses, 20 million cells, 100 million cells, and 200 million cells, using BioCardia’s minimally invasive Helix catheter delivery system which enters the heart through a blood vessel. A two-week waiting period between each dose cohort is built into the study design with a formal Data Safety Monitoring Board review following each dose.   These proprietary CardiALLO human cells and their dedicated proprietary catheter delivery system are manufactured at BioCardia’s facility in Sunnyvale, California.

“The initiation of the CardiALLO mesenchymal cell clinical trial for HFrEF is a significant milestone in our efforts to improve patients’ lives through the development of new treatments that target the underpinnings of heart disease,” said Peter Altman, BioCardia’s president and CEO. “We are grateful for the support of study sites, patients and families who are actively engaged with BioCardia in our efforts to explore the potential of BCDA-03 as a novel treatment for ischemic HFrEF. We look forward to continuing this close partnership as we actively enroll additional patients in the CardiALLO mesenchymal cell study.  Similar to our autologous CardiAMP cell therapy, which this allogenic cell therapy compliments, there are no requirements for immunosuppression, antiarrhythmic drugs, or open chest surgery.”

This study follows BioCardia’s three previous co-sponsored clinical trials with MSCs in ischemic heart failure: TACHFT1, POSEIDON2 and TRIDENT3. These trials included 93 patients treated with culture expanded MSCs or dedicated controls using the Helix delivery system with no observed treatment emergent serious adverse events. The CardiALLO MSC trial builds on the compelling early signals for benefit demonstrated in these previous clinical trials.

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