By: AllPennyStocks.com News

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The words came out mildly and low-key, as would any spoken at someone’s funeral. But Ron Reagan’s eulogy for his father, the 40th president of the United States, conveyed the sense of outrage that most people in his situation felt at that time. Reagan suggested on that summer day in 2003 that his father, a victim of Alzheimer’s disease, could have been helped – perhaps even cured - if the current Bush Administration had not put the kybosh on stem-cell research.

Small wonder, then, that cheers rang out across America and the world in early March, when the current president, Barack Obama, reversed the previous regime’s course and lifted the lid on federal funding to stem cell research. Controversy still rages over the process, opponents arguing that embryonic stem cell technologies provide a slippery slope to reproductive cloning, and could fundamentally devalue human life. Those opposed to abortion contend that a human embryo is a human life entitled to protection. Those in favour say that many diseases can be eased, perhaps treated, even done away with, but the controversy kept what could be life-saving technology at bay.

Appropriately, as much of the pioneering work into stem cell technology was done in Canada in the 1960s, a company that likely took its cue from the U.S. president’s announcement this month was Calgary-based Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. (TSX-Venture:SSS). Stem Cell Therapeutics is a public biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of drug-based therapies to treat central nervous system diseases.

The company’s lead program is a regimen of two approved and marketed drugs aimed at treating the effects of stroke. The treatment stimulates the growth and differentiation of new neurons to replace brain cells lost to or damaged by the stroke. This approach avoids surgical implantation of stem cells by using drugs to stimulate the body’s own adult stem cells. The last point might settle the nerves of investors dealing with their own ethical dilemma over putting their money into such a company.

The latest developments out of SSS were released in February, with word that clinical trials on 12 patients in a 90-day review each recovered at least four points on the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, averaging improvement of more than six points. No safety concerns presented themselves.

SSS has been fairly range-bound in terms of price since last May, when it reached 28.5 cents a share, before dipping down to two cents last November. In mid-March, the week of the Obama announcement that shined the spotlight on this sort of technology, the price sat around seven cents, still within bargain territory.

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