SUGAR LAND, Texas – A Sugar Land biopharmaceutical company is the first in the nation to receive FDA approval or a trial to treat COVID-19 long haulers with adult stem cells.
Long haulers are patients who are no longer infected with coronavirus but suffer the harsh symptoms sometimes for months after.
“We actually don’t know a lot about this post-COVID-19 syndrome but there are many people in our community that are suffering,” said Donna Chang, the president of Hope Biosciences.
The company said in their initial three-and-a-half-month treatments patients who were suffering from persistent coughs, headaches, chronic fatigue, and other symptoms responded well to the cells and were able to resume normal lives.
“We have a pretty good idea of how they work,” Chang said. “We just don’t know how well they work in COVID long haulers. But we do think it’s a good fit.”
Doctors extract fat cells from the patient’s stomach in what they say is a painless procedure. Hope Biosciences then uses a patented media, or food source, that eventually grows one billion of the patient’s stem cells that will be injected back into their body.
The stem cells then engage particular symptoms to hopefully bring patients much-needed relief.
“I think that’s what these COVD-19 long haulers want,” Chang said. “They just want a chance to feel back to normal. So we hope that we can accomplish that with this trial.”
The trial is set to begin in two weeks and the company is looking for 10 participants. It is free to join the trial and patients will receive five infusions over three and a half months. For those wanting to participate, they should call 346-900-0340.
