** Shares of biotech firm Creative Medical Technology Holdings rise 35% to $5.58 premarket
** Co says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted "orphan drug" status to its experimental immunotherapy to prevent graft rejection in patients with brittle type 1 diabetes, undergoing pancreatic islet cell transplantation
** Brittle type 1 diabetes is characterized by extreme fluctuations in blood glucose levels
** In islet cell transplantation, insulin-producing cells in the pancreas (islets) are transplanted from a donor into a person with type 1 diabetes
** The therapy, CELZ-101, uses the patient's own regulatory T cells to combat immune responses that can destroy islets - CELZ
** Orphan drug status is given by the FDA to drugs that treat rare conditions and are protected through a series of government incentives once in market
** Up to last close, stock was down 35.5% in the last 12 months
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru)
((Mariam.ESunny@thomsonreuters.com;))
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