With One Trial Shelved And Another Failed, StemCells To Shut Down
Summary
Founded in 1988, StemCells, of Newark, CA, was one of the earliest companies to try to turn modified human stem cells into therapies.In 2014, StemCells made a questionable move to name Alan Trounson a board member days after he left his post as president of CIRM.Trounson had overseen CIRM’s $19 million award to StemCells in 2012 to help fund an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment.As the San Francisco Business Times reported in January, StemCells was paying its ex-CEO Martin McGlynn more than $1 million in severance even as it was cutting costs by laying off workers and shutting down a trial of an experimental treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss in the western world.In late 2013, CEO McGlynn told Xconomy that dry AMD—which affects tens of millions of people around the world—likely represented the largest market opportunity for the company.