MRNA - Longeveron (NASDAQ: LGVN) Reports 100% 5-Year Survival In Trial For Rare Pediatric Disease HLHS (Compared To 80% Survival In Historical Trials) To Market | Benzinga
Advancements in healthcare and medicine have helped contribute to the reduction in child mortality rates, plummeting from 185 per 1,000 births a century ago to just 7 per 1,000 births in 2020. However, some serious pediatric conditions continue to pose a threat. One is hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare but dangerous heart defect where the child’s left ventricle is severely underdeveloped.
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) impacts approximately 1 in 3,800 newborns (or about 1,025 live births in the United States annually). Children born with this condition have a significant risk of death stemming from the failure of their right heart ventricle. The case of T.J. Olsen, son of former NFL star Greg Olsen, who was born with HLHS, illustrates the gravity of this condition. Despite undergoing four intricate heart surgeries, T.J.'s condition continued to deteriorate, resulting in congestive heart failure. Ultimately, TJ had to have a life-saving heart transplant at 8 years of age – highlighting the severity of HLHS.
Longeveron (NASDAQ: LGVN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on age-related and life-threatening conditions, is developing Lomecel-B™, its leading drug candidate, to try to improve outcomes for children like T.J. who suffer from HLHS. Lomecel-B™is a cellular medicine known as a medicinal signaling cell (MSC) that can be derived from the bone marrow of healthy adults. Administering Lomecel-B™ directly into the heart tissue ...