I would just like to say that as a shareholder in both RVX and SVA i see no conflict between them as the Cell Pouch of SVA really acts as a protector of Islet cells and allows them to function as a new organ replacing the essentially non functional Pancreas (in the sense of automatically providing Insulin (also C-peptide which is a marker of genertion of insulin).

As is the reality of medical advancements the process of approval by the FDA is very painfully slow and this process is just at the stage now where it is possible to state that patients in a trial which as far as the FDA is concerned is just to verify that the pouch itself does not have any bad effects on the trial participants and does protect and provide a happy home for the transplanted Islets.

the fact that it does provide a trouble free happy new home for the islets is a big step. the rest of the process will be seen when the pouch can be filled with islets that have protection from the immune system. That is the really big step which will mean that it can be used for a larger population. The company has many possibilities in that area but getting to the stage that further trials can proceed is also a hard step to get permission for.

By the way the reason for the low number of participants is the real problem that the implanted islets would be killed by the immune system so essentially the immune system must be turned off by anti rejection drugs.

As you can imagine the people who are willing to accept that are only people who find that the lesser of two evils. the only participants so far are ones who are "brittle" diabetics who can easily go into insulin shock (without noticing it) and thus die if the injections of insulin are not perfectly matched to their food intake.

 Compared to type 1 type 2 is an easy one and that is solved (though imperfectly) with existing drugs  and is the only one where RVX provides improvements.