Matthew Gornet, MD, on Treating Degenerative Disc Disease With Cell Therapy
The spine surgeon from The Orthopedic Center of St. Louis discussed recent data on IDCT from the phase 1/2 DGX-A01 study.
“I have never seen anything regrow a desk, but I've seen DiscGenics’ cellular therapy do it and we were able to show that in our data also. The high dose group showed dramatic improvement, visibly and from a mathematical computation, showing that disk volume increased. These are signs that we'reactually regenerating the spine, which should excite everyone.”
IDCT (rebonuputemcel; DiscGenics) yielded durable improvements in low back pain, function, quality of life, and pain medication usage by 12 weeks in patients with lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD) in 2-year data from the phase 1/2 DGX-A01 study (NCT03347708).1 Investigators found that particiapants with DDD dosed with high-dose (9,000,000 cells/mL; n=20) IDCT had statistically significant improvements in back pain scores by over 30% as measured on a 100mm Visual Analog Scale at 52 weeks (–62.79%, P = .0005). Clinically meaningful, statistically significant improvements in low back pain, function, and quality of life, were also seen by 12 weeks after treatment, and these improvements were sustained at 6 months, 1 year, 1.5 years, and 2 years post-injection. The allogeneic discogenic progenitor cell therapy has also been granted regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation by the FDA.2
CGTLive spoke with investigator Matthew Gornet, MD, spine surgeon at The Orthopedic Center of St. Louis, to learn more about the DGX-A01 study and the recent data presented from it. He discussed the treatment landscape of DDD so far and the potential of IDCT and other cell therapies to revolutionize it.
REFERENCES
1. DiscGenics announces positive two-year clinical data from study of discogenic progenitor cell therapy for degenerative disc disease. News release. DiscGenics. January 23, 2023. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/discgenics-announces-positive-two-year-clinical-data-from-study-of-discogenic-progenitor-cell-therapy-for-degenerative-disc-disease-301728259.html
2. DiscGenics announces FDA regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation granted to IDCT for degenerative disc disease. News release. DiscGenics. January 26, 2023. https://www.discgenics.com/news-posts/2023/1/26/discgenics-announces-fda-regenerative-medicine-advanced-therapy-rmat-designation-granted-to-idct-for-degenerative-disc-disease
OPMD and Advancements in Genetic Research
April 22nd 2025Matthew Wicklund, MD, a professor of neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, discussed the genetic basis of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, as well as the primary challenges in diagnosing and treating the condition.
