Lineage Broadens Collaboration With Advanced BioMatrix for HyStem® Cell Drug Delivery Technology

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American and TASE: LCTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing allogeneic cell therapies for unmet medical needs, today announced that it has expanded its existing collaboration with Advanced BioMatrix, a division of BICO Group AB (STO: BICO), for Lineage’s HyStem cell/drug delivery technology. Under the expanded collaboration, Advanced BioMatrix will broaden its current focus of manufacturing and supplying R&D-grade HyStem to the research community to include the development, supply and/or licensing of clinical/commercial GMP- (Good Manufacturing Practice) grade material for its customers. The amended agreement increases the milestone payments and royalty percentages due to Lineage upon ABM reaching certain development milestones and/or product sales.

“We are pleased to broaden the scope of our agreement with Advanced BioMatrix and the opportunity to include the commercial supply of clinical-grade HyStem as part of ABM’s biomaterials & bioprinting portfolio which is widely available to the cell therapy product development community,” stated Brian M. Culley, Lineage CEO. “We have decided this year to place a greater emphasis on business development and licensing and we believe the decision to broaden our partnership with ABM is an example of our ability to rapidly monetize prior investments in our technology platform and its related intellectual property. Alongside our prioritized assets, other assets which are not core to our cell transplant platform can create new opportunities for cash flow and support our development pipeline. Our strategy is to identify and pursue opportunities to unlock value from our business and to utilize capital from these corporate alliances to advance our novel cell therapy programs.”

“The mission of Advanced BioMatrix is to enable the future of life-saving treatments, and the HyStem technology can now be more fully utilized as a tool towards accomplishing this mission,” added Bowman Bagley, Advanced BioMatrix CEO.

HyStem is a patented hydrogel which mimics naturally occurring extracellular matrix, the structural network of molecules surrounding cells in organs and tissues and essential to cellular function and tissue structure. HyStem biomaterial has been shown to support cellular attachment and survival as well as compatibility with a wide variety of cells and tissue types including brain, bone, skin, cartilage, vascular and heart tissues.

About Advanced BioMatrix, Inc.

Advanced BioMatrix, a San Diego based leader in the life science of three dimensional (3D) applications for tissue culture, cell assay, bioprinting and cell proliferation, was acquired by BICO Group AB in September 2021. BICO is a publicly traded bioconvergence company that designs and supplies technologies and services to enhance biology research. Advanced BioMatrix has been manufacturing and delivering high quality products for research uses and applications for over 10 years and continues to add several innovative new products each year that provide research tools for our customers worldwide. Advanced BioMatrix develops new products and technologies directly and also collaborates with many research institutes, universities and life science companies.

About Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs. Lineage’s programs are based on its robust proprietary cell-based therapy platform and associated in-house development and manufacturing capabilities. With this platform Lineage develops and manufactures specialized, terminally differentiated human cells from its pluripotent and progenitor cell starting materials. These differentiated cells are developed to either replace or support cells that are dysfunctional or absent due to degenerative disease or traumatic injury or administered as a means of helping the body mount an effective immune response to cancer. Lineage’s clinical programs are in markets with billion dollar opportunities and include five allogeneic (“off-the-shelf”) product candidates: (i) OpRegen, a retinal pigment epithelial cell therapy in Phase 1/2a development for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, which is being developed under a worldwide collaboration with Roche and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group; (ii) OPC1, an oligodendrocyte progenitor cell therapy in Phase 1/2a development for the treatment of acute spinal cord injuries; (iii) VAC2, a dendritic cell therapy produced from Lineage’s VAC technology platform for immuno-oncology and infectious disease, currently in Phase 1 clinical development for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; (iv) ANP1, an auditory neuronal progenitor cell therapy for the potential treatment of auditory neuropathy; and (v) PNC1, a photoreceptor neural cell therapy for the treatment of vision loss due to photoreceptor dysfunction or damage. For more information, please visit www.lineagecell.com or follow the company on Twitter @LineageCell.

Forward-Looking Statements

Lineage cautions you that all statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, in some cases, can be identified by terms such as “believe,” “aim,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “design,” “intend,” “expect,” “could,” “can,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “seek,” “should,” “would,” “contemplate,” “project,” “target,” “tend to,” or the negative version of these words and similar expressions. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to: the collaboration and license agreement with Roche and Genentech; the power and efficiency of Lineage’s platform and its competitive advantages; the potential future achievements of Lineage’s clinical and preclinical programs; and plans and expectations of Lineage’s products in development. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Lineage’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release, including, but not limited to, the risk that Advanced BioMatrix may not be successful in maintaining or expanding its market for HyStem; risks and uncertainties inherent in Lineage’s business and other risks discussed in Lineage’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Lineage’s forward-looking statements are based upon its current expectations and involve assumptions that may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included under the heading “Risk Factors” in Lineage’s periodic reports with the SEC, including Lineage’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC and its other reports, which are available from the SEC’s website. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they were made. Lineage undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

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