BioTime Inc. (NYSE:BTX) said today that it won a $1.9 million grant from the Israel Innovation Authority to help support development of its dry-AMD drug, OpRegen.
The company’s investigational therapy delivers retinal pigment epithelial cells into the subretinal space to replace lost RPE cells in patients with macular degeneration.
BioTime is testing its drug in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial and plans to enroll a fourth cohort of patients with earlier stages of the disease.
“These earlier stage patients will likely be the target patient population for this therapy and BioTime expects to share initial data from cohort 4 in the coming months,” the company said in a statement.
“The IIA’s continued support is encouraging and shows their commitment and confidence in our ability to continue the development of OpRegen, our lead cell replacement program,” co-CEO Adi Mohanty added.
