Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - ReNeuron Group PLC on Wednesday reported "significant improvement in vision" in the trial of its hRPC cell therapy candidate for retinal disease.
ReNeuron shares were trading 12% higher at 53.00 pence each.
The stem-cell research company is carrying out a phase I/II trial of hRPC to treat the blindness-causing disease, retinitis pigmentosa.
The company said that all three of the first cohort of subjects, in the phase II part of the trial, have reported a significant improvement in vision, on average equivalent to reading three more lines on the standard visual acuity chart.
The patients treated in the phase II trial have some retinal functionality and out of the three treated all showed improvement in as little as 18 days.
"When I heard about the rapidity and magnitude of the visual gain in the first patient that Jason [Comander the trial's first investigator] treated in this cohort, I was hopeful, but sceptical. Now that I saw this repeated in my first two patients, I am very excited indeed," investigator Pravin Dugel said.
ReNeuron noted that these are early data and will continue to generate further results as the trial goes on.
