Stem Cell Companies: Overview

Public discussion of stem cell research has generally focused on public funding for human embryonic stem cell research, which is only a portion of the investigative activity. During the period in which public funding for embryonic stem cell research was denied and which ended in 2009, the private sector had a monopoly on such research; further, some of the publicly funded research was diverted by efforts to develop adult stem cells that would be suitable as substitutes for embryonic ones.

The stem cell industry includes companies that design, develop, manufacture, and market stem cell-based therapies and research reagents, as well as equipment and tools used in those activities. The first stem cell clinical trial in the private sector was launched in 1998, the same year that ...