When thalidomide came to market in the 1950s as a morning sickness
treatment, no one imagined the many cases of birth defects that would
result from use of the drug.
More than 50
years later, a small Madison-based stem cell company is selling a
research product that could have prevented what some have called one of
the biggest medical tragedies of modern times.
Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc.
uses a proprietary stem cell technology that allows it to predict with a
high degree of accuracy whether a drug or a compound is going to be
toxic.
"If
thalidomide would have gone through Stemina's screening, it would have
been so easy for them to say 'this isn't going to work,' " said Tom
Shannon, principal at private investment group Shamrock Partners and an
investor in Stemina. "But instead, they used rat models that resulted in
terrible outcomes for thousands, if not tens of thousands of children." Stemina,
founded in 2006, has the potential to have a big impact on the
identification of toxicity not just in drugs that are being developed,
but also in agricultural products, cosmetics and other areas, said
Shannon, who previously headed Prodesse Inc., a Waukesha biotech company
bought by Gen-Probe Inc. of San Diego in late 2009.
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