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PART I
Statements made in this Form 10-K that are not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. Words such as “expects,” “may,” “will,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. See Note 1 to Financial Statements.
References to “we” means BioTime, Inc. and its subsidiaries unless the context otherwise indicates.
The description or discussion, in this Form 10-K, of any contract or agreement is a summary only and is qualified in all respects by reference to the full text of the applicable contract or agreement.
Item 1.
Overview
We are a biotechnology company focused on the emerging field of regenerative medicine. Our core technologies center on stem cells capable of becoming all of the cell types in the human body,a property called pluripotency. Products made from these “pluripotent” stem cells are being developed by us and our subsidiaries, each of which concentrates on different medical specialties, including: neuroscience, oncology, orthopedics, and blood and vascular diseases. Our commercial strategy is heavily focused on near-term commercial opportunities including our current line of research products such as ACTCellerate™ cell lines and associated ESpan™ culture media, HyStem® hydrogels, human embryonic stem cell lines, and royalties from Hextend®. Potential near term therapeutic product opportunities include the launch of HyStem®-Rx as a cell delivery device expected in 2013, and the launch of PanC-Dx™ as a novel blood-based cancer screen, expected by 2014. Our long-term strategic focus is to provide regenerative therapies for age-related degenerative diseases.
“Regenerative medicine” refers to an emerging field of therapeutic product development that may allow all human cell and tissue types to be manufactured on an industrial scale. This new technology is made possible by the first isolation of human embryonic stem (“hES”) cells and by the development of “induced pluripotent stem (“iPS”) cells” which are created from regular cells of the human body using technology that allows adult cells to be “reprogrammed” into cells with pluripotency like young hES-like cells. These pluripotent hES and iPS cells have the unique property of being able to branch out into each and every kind of cell in the human body, including the cell types that make up the brain, the blood, the heart, the lungs, the liver, and other tissues. Unlike adult-derived stem cells that have limited potential to become different cell types, pluripotent stem cells may have vast potential to supply an array of new regenerative therapeutic products, especially those targeting the large and growing markets associated with age-related degenerative disease. Unlike pharmaceuticals that require a molecular target, therapeutic strategies in regenerative medicine are generally aimed at regenerating affected cells and tissues, and therefore may have broader applicability. Regenerative medicine represents a revolution in the field of biotechnology with the promise of providing therapies for diseases previously considered incurable.
Our commercial efforts in regenerative medicine include the development and sale of products designed for research applications in the near term as well as products designedfor diagnostic and therapeutic applications in the medium and long term. We offer advanced human stem cell products and technology that can be used by researchers at universities and at companies in the bioscience and biopharmaceutical industries. We have developed research and clinical grade hES cell lines that we market for both basic research and therapeutic product development. Our subsidiary, ES Cell International (“ESI”), has developed six hES cell lines that are among the best-characterized and documented lines available today. Developed using current Good Manufacturing Practices (“cGMP”) that facilitate transitions into the clinic, these hES cell lines are extensively characterized and five of the six cell lines currently have documented and publicly-available genomic sequences. The ESI hES cell lines are now included in the Stem Cell Registry of the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), making them eligible for use in federally funded research and all are available for purchase through www.biotimeinc.com. We also market human embryonic progenitor cell (“hEPCs”) developed using ACTCellerate™ technology. These hEPCs are purified lineages of cells that are intermediate in the developmental process between embryonic stem cells and fully differentiated cells. We expect that hEPCs will simplify the scalable manufacture of highly purified and identified cell types and will possess the ability to become a wide array of cell types with potential applications in research, drug discovery, and human regenerative stem cell therapies. The ACTCellerate™ cell lines are also available for purchase through www.biotimeinc.com.
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Research products can be marketed without regulatory or other governmental approval, and thus offer relatively near-term business opportunities, especially when compared to therapeutic products. The medical devices that we and our subsidiaries are developing will require regulatory approval for marketing, but the clinical trial and approval process for medical devices is often faster and less expensive than the process for the approval of new drugs and biological therapeutics. Our current and near-term product opportunities, combined with expected long-term revenues from the potentially very large revenue cell-based therapeutic products under development at our subsidiaries, provide us with a balanced commercial strategy. The value of this balance is apparent in the commercial field of regenerative medicine as competitors whose sole focus is on long-term therapeutic products have found it challenging to raise the requisite capital to fund clinical development.
Our HyStem® hydrogel product line is one of the components in our near-term revenue strategy. HyStem® is a patented biomaterial that mimics the human extracellular matrix, which is the network of molecules surrounding cells in organs and tissues that is essential to cellular function. Many tissue engineering and regenerative cell-based therapies will require the delivery of therapeutic cells in a matrix or scaffold to sustain cell survival after transplantation and to maintain proper cellular function. HyStem® is a unique hydrogel that has been shown to support cellular attachment and proliferation in vivo and is currently being used by researchers at a number of leading medical schools in pre-clinical studies of stem cell therapies to facilitate wound healing, for the treatment of ischemic stroke, brain cancer, vocal fold scarring, and for, myocardial infarct repair. Our HyStem® hydrogels may have other applications when combined with the diverse and scalable cell types our scientists have isolated from hES cells.
HyStem®-Rx is a clinical grade formulation of HyStem-C®, a biocompatible, implantable hyaluronan and collagen-based matrix for cell delivery in human clinical applications. As an injectable product, HyStem®-Rx may address an immediate need in cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries and other procedures by improving the process of transplanting adipose derived cells, mesenchymal stem cells, or other adult stem cells. We will need to obtain approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and comparable regulatory agencies in foreign countries in order to market HyStem®-Rx as a medical device. Our goal is to initiate clinical trials in the European Union by late 2012 for CE marking.
Our subsidiary, OncoCyte Corporation, is developing PanC-Dx™, a novel non-invasive blood-based cancer screening test designed to detect the presence of various human cancers, including cancers of the breast, lung, bladder, uterus, stomach, and colon, during routine check -ups. We intend to initially seek regulatory approval to market PanC-Dx™ in Europe before seeking regulatory approvals required to market the product in the U.S. and other countries.