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The 6 W’s: Who, what, where, when, why and what of it …

Today’s Gospel:    Traders seem … reluctant to make any … significant … moves ahead of tomorrow’s monthly jobs report, with stocks turning in a … lackluster performance in mid-day trading on Thursday. The major averages have turned mixed on the day after ending the previous session firmly in positive territory. Stocks had their best January in 15 years … but, technical indicators are sending mixed signals about whether the rally can continue.

Mid-Day: The NASDAQ is UP +8.41 (+0.03%) to 2,856.68 while the Dow is DOWN -22.13  (-0.17%) to 12,694.33.

Mid-Day Market Commentary:  Stocks fluctuated in a narrow range … shifting between small gains and losses … Thursday as Fed’s Bernanke gave a lackluster outlook of the economy and as investors weighed a handful of mixed earnings against an encouraging jobless claims report. The NASDAQ struggles to hold their gains. The CBOE Volatility Index <widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market >traded below 19.

Who is UP … Mid-Day:   

• Advanced Cell techology (OTC BB: ACTC);
• Athersys (ATHX),  
• Cytori (CYTX),
• Geron (GERN); 
• Geron (GERN),
• Pluristem (PSTI);
• StemCells (STEM); 
• ThermoGenesis (KOOL) and

What’s new in the regenerative medicine/stem cell market … 5 … things to know today …

Stemgent raising $6.3M from 8 backers: http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2012/01/30/daily69-Stemgent-adds-63M-to-coffers-to-grow-portfolio.html . Stemgent disclosed in a regulatory filing that it secured $6.3 million from eight backers in a round of equity financing. The company will use the money to expand its licensed intellectual property covering stem cell reagents and further grow its product portfolio. The Bottom Line: Stemgent’s last funding round brought in just under $600K, but its newest round increases that by an order of magnitude, raising $6.3M. Stemgent plans for an $8.8M top end for the round. The new equity round saw participation from 8 backers, listed as related persons in the filing are board members Harold Werner and Augustine Lawlor of HealthCare Ventures LLC of Cambridge and Ralph Christofferson of Morganthaler Partners of Ohio.  In 6/11, Stemgent bumped up a previous tranche of the Series B financing to $10.6M with a planned top end of $14M, from an initial $5.6M chunk of the round.

TENGION (TNGN) files $30M Mixed SECURITIES Shelf for an offering   

Stem Cell Politics: Presidential Candidate …Romney supported stem cell research during his 2002 race for governor but changed his mind before the 2007 presidential race, saying the turnabout led him to oppose abortion. The Bottom Line: Like many social conservatives and his Republican campaign rivals, Romney opposes any use of human embryonic stem cells for research into diseases and other medical issues because the work could destroy viable human embryos.

Odd News: According to the FDA, Your Stem Cells Are Now Drugs: http://gizmodo.com/5881492/according-to-the-fda-your-stem-cells-are-now-drugs . In recent court filings, the Food and Drug Administration has asserted that stem cells—you know, the ones our bodies produce naturally—are in fact drugs and subject to its regulatory oversight. So does that make me a controlled substance?  The bizarre controversy revolves around the FDA’s attempt to regulate the Centeno-Schultz Clinic in Colorado that performs a nonsurgical stem-cell therapy called Regenexx-SD.

StemCells (STEM) FDA Authorization for Age-Related Macular Degeneration Clinical Trial: http://www.scimitarequity.com/blog/2012/02/02/stemcells-stem-fda-authorization-for-age-related-macular-degeneration-clinical-trial .The Bottom Line: Preclinical data submitted as part of the IND application demonstrated that HuCNS-SC cells protect host photoreceptors and preserve vision in a well-established animal model of retinal disease that is relevant to dry AMD.  STEM’s approach is to provide durable protection of photoreceptors, thereby preserving vision, as opposed to approaches that aim to replace photoreceptors or the retinal pigmented epithelial cells. Furthermore, preclinical data supports a single transplant in AMD patients. A crowed stem cell universe of applications is targeting the ophthalmology market, but the question is still the delivery …