On August 6, 2020Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American and TASE: LCTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs, reported financial and operating results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020 (Press release, Lineage Cell Therapeutics, AUG 6, 2020, View Source [SID1234563049]). Lineage management will host a conference call today at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time/2:30 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss its second quarter 2020 financial and operating results and to provide a business update.

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"Lineage has continued to make significant progress across our entire cell therapy pipeline, with positive milestones on each of our three programs announced this quarter," stated Brian M. Culley, Lineage CEO. "Most importantly, after moving into a cohort of patients with less advanced disease, we reported the first known finding of retinal tissue restoration, which we believe could become a landmark discovery in the treatment of dry AMD. Specifically, Lineage reported evidence of substantial anatomical restoration of retinal tissue within an area of geographic atrophy, or GA. The area of GA was approximately 25% smaller when assessed at 9 months, compared to the patient’s pre-treatment baseline. These findings were initially discovered by an independent external advisor using multiple imaging technologies and were subsequently confirmed by the reading center and additional experts in the field of retinal imaging. In light of the significance of this finding, our objective is to treat and monitor the final three patients in Cohort 4 of our dry AMD study and seek to demonstrate additional evidence of this exciting finding. These data also will direct our clinical, regulatory, and ongoing partnership discussions.

We also recently exercised an option with Cancer Research UK, which allowed us to assume responsibility for advancing our dendritic cell vaccine program, strengthening our pipeline and moving Lineage more prominently into the field of cancer immunotherapy. The VAC platform will permit us to expand not only our oncology pipeline, but also enter infectious diseases, with steps being taken to identify external funding to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, based on VAC platform data showing strong induction of cellular immunity via T cells.

Lastly, we have made significant progress developing and implementing manufacturing improvements for our OPC1 program to treat spinal cord injuries. We now are working to develop a "thaw-and-inject" formulation and are evaluating a superior delivery system to enable an easier and faster surgical procedure and facilitate enrollment in a late-stage clinical study.

Our aim is to provide safe and sustained benefits of targeted cell-based therapies, alongside commercially relevant solutions with competitive advantages in areas of scale-up, production costs, and delivery techniques. We believe our holistic approach to designing new therapeutic solutions will allow us to position ourselves as the clear leader in the emerging field of cell therapy transplant medicine."

Lineage has the following plans and objectives for the second half of 2020:

– Meet with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in August to discuss our proposal for non-dilutive support for a coronavirus vaccine candidate.

– Report initial VAC2 clinical data from patients treated in the ongoing Phase 1 trial in NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) run by Cancer Research UK.

– Complete patient enrollment in the U.S. with the Gyroscope Orbit SDS and new thaw-and-inject formulation in the ongoing Phase 1/2a clinical trial of OpRegen for the treatment of dry AMD.

– Present new and accumulated OpRegen data from the ongoing Phase 1/2a clinical trial at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Annual 2020 Meeting the second week of November.

– Meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss further development of the OPC1 program.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Highlights

Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $20.3 million as of June 30, 2020. Marketable securities include our remaining ownership of unrestricted securities in OncoCyte Corporation (OncoCyte), AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (AgeX) and Hadasit Bio-Holdings Ltd (Hadasit).

We have continued to fund our operations primarily by selling a portion of our marketable securities. In the six months ended June 30, 2020, we sold approximately 4.8 million shares of OncoCyte common stock for net proceeds of $10.9 million. We continue to hold approximately 3.6 million shares of OncoCyte stock that are valued at $6.8 million as of August 4, 2020, based on the closing price of its common stock on that date. All of our marketable securities are now in companies in which we hold less than 10% of the outstanding shares.

In conjunction with the sale of AgeX shares to Juvenescence Limited (Juvenescence) in 2018, we also hold a $21.6 million promissory note bearing 7% annual interest that matures later this month, on August 30, 2020. As of June 30, 2020, the outstanding principal and accrued interest on the note was $24.4 million. If, prior to August 30, 2020, Juvenescence completes an initial public offering resulting in gross proceeds of at least $50.0 million, the promissory note automatically converts into the Juvenescence securities.

Net cash used in operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was approximately $9.3 million, a decrease of $9.7 million as compared to $19.0 million in the same period of 2019. Additionally, net cash used in the three months ended June 30, 2020 of $4.3 million is $0.7 million lower than net cash used in the three months ended March 31, 2020 of $5.0 million.

Second Quarter Operating Results

Revenues: Lineage’s revenue is generated primarily from research grants, royalties and licensing fees. Total revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2020 were $0.4 million, a decrease of $0.4 million as compared to $0.8 million for the same period in 2019. The decrease was primarily related to a $0.2 million decrease in grant revenue due to the timing of grant related activities for OpRegen and other ophthalmic applications and a $0.1 million decrease in the sale of research products and services due to the cessation of such sales.

Operating Expenses: Operating expenses are comprised of research and development (R&D) expenses and general and administrative (G&A) expenses. Total operating expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2020 were approximately $6.7 million, a decrease of $4.8 million as compared to $11.5 million for the same period in 2019.

R&D Expenses: R&D expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2020 were $2.8 million, an approximate decrease of $2.4 million as compared to $5.2 million for the same period in 2019. The overall decrease was primarily related to decreases of $1.7 million in OpRegen and other ophthalmic application expenses, attributable primarily to a decrease in manufacturing activities in 2020 as compared to 2019, and $0.7 million in OPC1 expenses, primarily related to a decrease in development activities in 2020 as compared to 2019 when technology transfer was a focus to support OPC1 coming in-house with the acquisition of Asterias.

G&A Expenses: G&A expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2020 were $3.9 million, a decrease of $2.4 million as compared to approximately $6.3 million for the same period in 2019. The decrease was primarily attributable to a $1.6 million reduction in expenses related to our merger with Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Asterias), a $0.2 million reduction in compensation expenses, a $0.2 million reduction in investor and public relations expenses, a $0.2 million reduction in accounting expenses, a $0.1 million reduction in travel expenses, a $0.1 million reduction in rent expenses and a $0.1 million reduction in consulting expenses, offset by a $0.2 million increase related to the cessation of shared services reimbursements.

Loss from Operations: Loss from operations for the three months ended June 30, 2020 was $6.4 million, a decrease of $4.4 million as compared to $10.8 million for the same period in 2019.

Other (Expense) Income, Net: Other income/(expenses), net for the three months ended June 30, 2020 reflected other expense, net of ($0.1) million, compared to other expense, net of ($20.5) million for the same period in 2019. The variance was primarily related to changes in the value of equity method investments and marketable equity securities for the applicable periods, as well as foreign currency translation adjustments related to Lineage’s international subsidiaries. The value of Lineage’s OncoCyte shares decreased by $21.4 million in the three months ended June 30, 2019, which contributed greatly to the overall balance in other expense, net for that period.

Net loss attributable to Lineage: The net loss attributable to Lineage for the three months ended June 30, 2020 was $6.5 million, or $0.04 per share (basic and diluted), compared to a net loss attributable to Lineage of $30.0 million, or $0.20 per share (basic and diluted), for the same period in 2019.

Conference Call and Webcast

Lineage will host a conference call and webcast today, at 2:30 pm PT/5:30 pm ET to discuss its second quarter 2020 financial results and to provide a business update. Interested parties may access the conference call by dialing (866) 888-8633 from the U.S. and Canada and (636) 812-6629 from elsewhere outside the U.S. and Canada and should request the "Lineage Cell Therapeutics Call". A live webcast of the conference call will be available online in the Investors section of Lineage’s website. A replay of the webcast will be available on Lineage’s website for 30 days and a telephone replay will be available through August 14, 2020, by dialing (855) 859-2056 from the U.S. and Canada and (404) 537-3406 from elsewhere outside the U.S. and Canada and entering conference ID number 6649516.