Alameda's BioTime Receives $2 Million Grant

From Business Wire: BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT:BTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing products addressing degenerative diseases, has been awarded a new grant for 2017 of up to 7.2 million Israeli New Shekels (approximately $2 million) from the Israel Innovation Authority (the “IIA”). The grant provides funding for the continued development of OpRegen®, and to date the IIA has provided annual grants totaling approximately $12 million.

OpRegen® is currently in a Phase I/IIa dose-optimization clinical study, which in July 2017 received authorization from the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) to move forward with enrollment of cohort 3. In cohort 3, BioTime plans to treat patients at sites in Israel and the U.S. Data reported to date have shown continued engraftment through the one year follow-up with encouraging potential structural improvement. In addition, no serious adverse events have been reported, indicating a continued favorable safety profile. BioTime expects to share more data at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) later this year.

“This new grant demonstrates the continued high level of support and confidence that the Israel Innovation Authority has in our development of cell therapy-based treatments,” said Adi Mohanty, co-Chief Executive Officer of BioTime.

As noted above, the grant was awarded by the IIA for the development of OpRegen® to Cell Cure Neurosciences, a majority-owned subsidiary of BioTime.

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