BioTime, Inc. announced that an abstract evaluating OpRegen® in patients with advanced dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (dry-AMD) based on the ongoing Phase I/IIa clinical trial will be presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Opthalmology (ARVO) meeting taking place from May 7-11, 2017, in Baltimore, Maryland. The abstract, titled “Phase I/IIa clinical trial of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE, OpRegen®) transplantation in advanced dry form age-related macular degeneration (AMD): interim results”, will be presented by Professor Eyal Banin, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center for Retinal and Macular Degenerations at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel. Professor Banin will be presenting complete data on patients in cohort 1, including follow-up of up to one year, and the most up-to-date data from patients in cohort 2 of the clinical trial. Patients in cohort 1 and cohort 2 received 50,000 and 200,000 OpRegen® cells in suspension, respectively. Macular degeneration affects approximately 11 million people in the U.S. It is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 60. Approximately 90% of these patients suffer from the dry form, for which there are no FDA-approved therapies. In dry-AMD, there is a loss or dysfunction of the layer of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, generally in the region of the eye called the macula, which is the part of the retina responsible for sharp, central vision that is important for facial recognition, reading and driving. These RPE cells support the light detecting photoreceptor cells that are so critical to vision. When people look at something, the photoreceptors (rods and cones) detect the light and send the information to their brain allowing them to perceive their surroundings. The age-dependent loss of RPE cells leads to degeneration of nearby photoreceptors, which can lead to severe vision loss or even legal blindness. Generally, the damage caused by the “dry” form is not as severe or rapid as that of the “wet” form. However, in the advanced stage of dry macular degeneration, widespread loss of RPE and photoreceptors in the macular area, called geographic atrophy, leads to severe vision impairment. While therapeutics are available to treat the wet form of AMD, there are currently no FDA-approved therapies for dry-AMD. OpRegen® for the treatment of the dry form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), consists of a suspension of Retinal Pigment Epithelial (RPE) cells that are delivered subretinally during a simple intraocular injection. A proprietary process that drives the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells is used to generate high purity OpRegen® RPE cells. OpRegen® RPE cells are also “xeno-free," meaning that no animal products are used at any point in the derivation and production process. The avoidance of the use of animal products eliminates some potential safety concerns. Preclinical studies in rats have shown that following a single subretinal injection of OpRegen®, the cells can rapidly organize into its natural monolayer structure in the subretinal space and survive throughout the lifetime of the animal. OpRegen® is designed to be an “off-the-shelf” allogeneic (non-patient specific) product. Unlike treatments that require multiple, frequent injections into the eye, it is expected that OpRegen® would be administered in a single procedure. OpRegen® was granted Fast Track designation from the FDA which allows more frequent interactions with the agency, and eligibility for accelerated approval and priority review. OpRegen® is a registered trademark of Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd., a majority-owned subsidiary of BioTime, Inc.