Living Cell Technologies Ltd., of Auckland, New Zealand, received approval from the Northern A Health and Disability Ethics Committee for the phase IIb trial of Ntcell for Parkinson's disease. The New Zealand Minister of Health authorized the application to conduct the trial last November. Ntcell is a choroid plexus cell product with the potential to treat neurodegenerative diseases, the company said, and choroid plexus cells help produce cerebrospinal fluid as well as a range of neurotrophins that have been shown to protect against neuron cell death in animal models.