24 cell therapy & stem cell stocks I’m following

Stem cell stocks, meaning cellular therapy biotech companies, face many challenges, but their clinical research is crucial.

Stem cell biotechs

These biotechs have ups and downs, sometimes at the same time. This is kind of the standard of “life” as any biotech company. It is definitely the case in the volatile stem cell and cell therapy arena. Today I’m highlighting 24 “stem cell stocks”. How has COVID impacted them? Mostly in very positive, even if likely transient ways. Which ones might be acquisition targets? What about the impact of the FDA?

So far in 2022, it’s been generally a pretty bad year for stem cell stocks too just as in 2021, which I detail below in a breakdown of results for 2021.

Note that some of the cell therapy biotechs that I’m featuring here are not yet publicly traded, but they are particularly interesting so I’ve decided to include them. It seems likely that they may do IPOs in coming years.

We’ve also seen quite a few acquisitions of cell therapy companies in the past 2 years including Celgene and others. There have been some name changes too, making things somewhat confusing in certain cases. Then Osiris dropped to the OTC market.

COVID bounce to cell therapy & stem cell stocks

The pandemic has been awful to put it mildly, but it has been an opportunity for many cell therapy biotechs. Their stocks have zoomed in some cases as investors have been snapping them up. I guess they’re rolling the dice that some of these firms will develop safe and effective COVID treatments based on cells.

It’s a risky area as the odds are that most cell therapy companies are not going to come up with successful COVID-19 treatments. I expect some will go way back down when the biotech COVID bounce fades. But if one or a few come up with approved cell therapies for COVID-19 it’ll likely be positively transforming for them and more importantly, potentially help a lot of people.

Many are primarily working on cell therapies for other conditions as well, of course.

RMATs

Cell therapy firms should be pleased with the rate at which the FDA has been approving their regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designations.

My list stands at 49 such approvals, but more are not yet in the public domain.

RMAT designations should make it easier for firms to move forward with their clinical studies.

What are the notable stem cell stocks or biotechs out there?

Below I have a concise list of stem cell and regenerative medicine biotech companies in alphabetical order. I’ve included a snippet in some cases of what they are up to or recent news for each. I also took a look at their share price changes over the last 12 months too.

In addition, where possible I’ve included a link to the company site and also links to past posts about the firm on The Niche.

Obviously, these are just biotechs that have gotten my notice, but there are more out there in this sector. Don’t see your favorite on the list? Weigh in with yours in the comments. Are you a fan of Brainstorm, Celularity or one of many others not mentioned below?

Note that some huge companies such as Astellas have substantial stem cell programs, but aren’t cell medicine focused overall so they aren’t listed. Other companies are more focused on gene therapy/gene editing rather than actual cell or stem cell therapies so not all of those have been included.

List of cell therapy biotechs

• Athersys (ATHX). MultiStem product. Past posts.
• Bluebird Bio (BLUE). Focus on genetic diseases and cancer.  Past posts.
• Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics (BCLI). Neurodegenerative disorders. Known especially for NurOwn.
• Caladrius (CLBS). Cardiovascular disease focus, but also COVID. Developing a CD34+ cell therapy for angina. Past posts.
• Capricor (CAPR). Developing CAP1002 for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Past posts.
• Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc (privately held). Cancer and blood disorders. Romyelocel-L to Prevent Infections During Neutropenia.
• Cellular Biomedicine Group (CBMG). Cancer and degenerative diseases.
• Cryo-Cell (CCEL). Cord blood banking firm. Past posts.
• Cynata (CYYNF). Diverse, interesting pipeline with push on the COVID too. Past posts.
• Fate Therapeutics (FATE). Cancer and immune disorders. Acquisition target? Past posts.
• Humacyte (privately held). They are focused on vascular access for hemodialysis. Past posts.
• jCyte (privately held). Retinitis pigmentosa. Past posts.
• Kiadis Pharma (KIADF). ATIR101, blood disorders. It’s being acquired by Sanofi and here’s more.
• Lineage Cell Therapeutics (LCTX). Notable work far into the trial process. Stock has more than doubled in the past year. This was BioTime. Past posts.
• Magenta Therapeutics (MGTA). Cell and gene therapy for immune reset. Past posts.
• Mesoblast (MESO). Focus on mesenchymal precursor cell therapy. Past posts.
• Pluristem (PSTI). Diverse pipeline and some work on COVID in the past year. Past posts.
• Plus Therapeutics (PSTV) Formerly Cytori. It has several cancer therapies in the pipeline. Past posts.
• Regeneron (REGN). Diverse areas of clinical interest. Past posts.
• Sangamo (SGMO). Gene and cell therapy intersect. Another acquisition target. Past posts.
• Seneca Biopharma (SNCA). It was formerly Neuralstem. Almost double for the year. Past posts.
• Thermogenesis (THMO). They have cell and gene therapy focuses. Formerly Cesca.
• Vericel (VCEL). It is focused on skin (burn) and orthopedic/cartilage repair. Formerly Aastrom Bio.
• ViaCyte (privately held). Progress continues on their diabetes trial. Past posts. I expect an IPO or acquisition in the next few years. (Update: ViaCyte was acquired by Vertex in 2022).

Looking ahead

I expect if we revisit these same 24 firms in 2 years, I bet at least 3-4 will have been acquired or will have new names.

Of the ones now working on COVID, how many will have a promising COVID treatment on the way to FDA approval or similar approvals abroad? Maybe one? As mentioned earlier, the core pipelines of most of these are not COVID-related.

Disclaimer: This post is not investment advice and this sector is very risky and volatile. I have no financial stakes in these companies. If that changes, I’ll post about it.