Patient Robert Gagne motorcycled thousands of miles in comfort. And on his many stops, he didn’t once turn to the local Yellow Pages to look up the nearest emergency room, as he was used to doing for many years.

The change, he said, began sometime in May, about eight weeks after he’d received an experimental stem-cell treatment developed by Baltimore’s Osiris Therapeutics, which yesterday announced results of the 10-person clinical trial Gagne took part in.

The drug, which analysts say is close to becoming the first pure stem cell product on the market, is already under investigation as a treatment for a rare condition associated with bone marrow transplants. But if it also gains approval as a therapy for Crohn’s disease - and possibly its cousin Irritable Bowel Syndrome - the drug Prochymal could be the first stem-cell product with a large application as well as a big breadwinner for the newly public Osiris.

Preliminary data released yesterday show that all 10 patients in the mid-stage clinical trial saw a reduction in symptoms after receiving intravenous infusions of the adult stem-cell treatment, and three of them went into temporary remission.

Eight of the 10 had already undergone surgery to control the disease, characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation, and tried out multiple medications.

According to the National Institutes of Health, Crohn’s symptoms typically include abdominal pain and frequent diarrhea. Rectal bleeding, intestinal ulcers and arthritis are not uncommon. And Combined, the Crohn’s and Irritable Bowel Syndrome affect about a million Americans.

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