PERTH, Australia – Stem cell therapy has failed to deliver on its promises, according to Exopharm Ltd. founder and CEO Ian Dixon, who said he believes that exosomes, or the extracellular vesicles released by stem cells, could be a disrupter in the regenerative medicine space.

Stem cell therapies may be relatively early stage, but that hasn’t stopped their developers from giving some serious thought to late stage issues like reimbursement and health economics. At the recent 2011 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa, panelists debated how careful consideration of such issues might help them avoid following in the footsteps of Dendreon Corp. First hailed as a front-runner of the cell therapy field for getting FDA approval of prostate cancer vaccine Provenge (sipuleucel-T), Dendreon has since become the red-headed stepchild of many analysts and investors due to its failure to gain commercial traction for the product....