I thought I would take a quick break during the week’s biotech earnings calls and before May’s run into ASCO data in June to quickly catch-up with a couple of stem cell companies. But, which ones? There are a dozen or more publicly traded companies, many privates and larger biotechs that are working across the spectrum of stem cells, from induction to production.

There are at least two broad technological categories, those that work with embryonic cells, such as Geron ($GERN) and Advanced Cell ($ACTC.OB), which have been lightning rods for the media, and those that work with adult stem cells, such as Aastrom ($ASTM) and Cytori ($CYTX), which can be attractive appear to traders. Others in the mix include: Athersys ($ATHX), Biotime ($BTX), International Stem Cells (ISCO.OB – does parthenogenesis count?), NeuralStem ($CUR), Osiris ($OSIR), Pluristem ($PSTI), ReNeuron ($RENE), StemCells ($STEM) and Stem Cell Therapeutics ($SSS); not included are those folks working on induced pluripotent stem cells (who did I miss?).

What caught my interest today was the neural stem cell segment, probably because $STEM reported 1Q11 results last week and also announced a 30% reduction in work force; wIth 74 FTEs reported at year end 2010, this means that 22 folks can now be added to the unemployment rolls.

$STEM looks like the “old-man on the (neuro) block” having been around since 1988, but not fully committed to stem cell development until 1999. From 1999 through 2010, $202 MM was pumped into the company through stock offerings, using paid-in capital as my measuring stick, so they spent an average of $16.8 MM over 12 years. Doesn’t sound too bad for a biotech company, does it?

As a fictional $STEM shareholder in 1999, after 12 years I have a company that is worth ~$110 MM, safety data from 10 Batten’s patients injected with stem cells into the brain (which could not continue due to lack of eligible patients), and two new trials in different cell types, a P1/2 in chronic spinal cord injuries and a P1 in myelination disease, in the works. Should I be disappointed? Yup.

Next up, $CUR, which was incorporated in 1997 for regenerative medicine, so in stem cell years, they are more senior to $STEM. It has been 14 years and they are presently in P1 trials in ALS patients injecting the lower spinal cord with neural stem cells, and expect to have 12-pt data by summer, so that they can test injections into the cervical spinal cord.

Compared to $STEM, I’d feel much better spending $93 MM, less than half of $STEM, and having P1 data from lower spinal cord injections by summer. I still don’t know if it has any therapeutic benefit, but for my $70 MM company, I feel better than $STEM. Perhaps ad revenues from the bottom of their home page is offsetting some of their cost (http://www.neuralstem.com/index.asp?pgid=1, accessed 5-5-11).

Lastly, $RENE. They are the newbie of the group having gone public on the AIM in 2005, but in existence since 2003 (maybe earlier). Their program in stroke is just kicking off with 2-pts treated as of March 2011, and the trial is expected to continue through 2012.

Being the 3rd player to the party has some advantages of learning from its predecessors. They have the smallest market cap of the three at GBP 32.6MM (USD 53 MM), but have been most efficient with their investors cash with a retained deficit of GBP 43 MM (USD 70 MM), having recently raised GBP 10 MM (USD 16 MM) for P1 data still to come.

Well, there we have it, three different neural stem cell companies and three different target areas: the brain, the spine and the cerebrovascular system.

I wonder if anyone knew at the outset, that it was going to take 10 years to get into clinic and that it would be even longer before we know if it is efficacious. On the flip side, what would have happened if the technology stayed within academia? Would we have better tools for testing? Would we be more efficient in development costs? Unclear. There has got to be a better equation for knowing when to let the technology loose into the world and when to baby it just a little bit longer.

No position in any neural stem cell company named. I don’t see any near term catalysts and would short on random spikes if shares were available.