Australian biotech Mesoblast sank 35% on Tuesday ahead of this week’s US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) committee meeting, which will assess the efficacy of its flagship stem cell therapy candidate.The stock dived to $11.33 at the close on Tuesday and is currently down 1.9% in pre-market trading. Mesoblast (MESO) disclosed that the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) will meet on Thursday to review data supporting its Biologics License Application (BLA) for the approval of its stem cell candidate remestemcel-L for the treatment of steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease (SR-aGVHD) in children, a severe immune response which can occur after a bone marrow transplant.There are currently no FDA-approved treatments in the US for children under 12 with SR-aGVHD, a potentially life-threatening complication of an allogeneic bone marrow transplant for blood cancer. The stem cell therapy candidate is also currently being studied in the US as a treatment for COVID-19 patients...
