Marc Hedrick
Analyst · Maxim
Good afternoon, everyone, thank you and thank you, Kristen. Welcome all to our third quarter 2016 earnings call. As Kristen said, I am Marc Hedrick, President and CEO of Cytori. And joining me on the call today is as usual our CFO, Tiago Girão; our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mark Marino both of them are in the U.S. and then here in Japan with myself is our Vice President and General Manager of Cell Therapy, Mr. John Harris. So let me just give you a brief overview of the call today. So first, I'm going to discuss the progress in our pipeline including some key updates on our clinical programs. John will then discuss the commercial related activities and related plans. Tiago is then going to update on financials. And then I'll update on forthcoming milestones and then we'll have time for Q&A. So kick things off let’s discuss the pipeline. And then specifically let’s talk about the Scleroderma program. So recall back in Q2 that we completed enrollment in the STAR US Scleroderma approval trial. Next week at the American College of Rheumatology meeting in Washington D.C. we're going to be presenting some high level preliminary results from that trial. Again that trial remains blinded, but the presentation will include details about the ease and acceptance of the procedure, it’s safety profile and reveal some of the baseline characteristics of the scleroderma patients treated and that will be presented in poster format and will be happy to make that available to you when it's published. Also as a reminder the full 12-month data readout in STAR is still expected in mid-2017. Things are going well there in terms of data collection. On the last call I mentioned U.S. orphan status and we're still waiting for approval. We have some interaction with the FDA but nothing formal as of yet and we’ll update you as we get more information. In Europe, we applied for and have received scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency regarding key questions for the ECCS-50. Based on the feedback we feel as if we are on the right track with our overall clinical program specifically as it relates to ultimate EU approval. Couple of issues I want to point. Regarding the receipt of a conditional marketing approval based on the pilot trial alone. It seems from the feedback that that's unlikely 12 patients in a non-controlled trial just not quite enough data. I think to likely allow us to do that. However, it seems from the feedback that STAR will likely be a sufficient strength and design for approval. In addition, you may noted that there's flexibility on the issue as to whether Cytori can register as an advanced tissue medicinal product, which is euro speak for a biologic here in the U.S., or whether we can see device regulators device and that the suggestion by them was made to apply formally to the CAT which is also called the Committee on Advanced Therapeutics for clarification as to designation. There's really no downside to this and it gives us optionality on regulatory path based on the Company's best interest. And frankly it's very similar to our status in Japan where we have optionality on being approved as a device or as a regenerative medicine product and can also be both depending on what indication we are pursuing. So our plan is look at the pros and cons which we are evaluating and perceived based on that whatever's in the Company and shareholders best interest. Also as I mentioned related to Europe on our last call, our EU investigator initiated trial scleroderma 2 is enrolling slower than we would like. 10 of 40 patients have thus far been enrolled to date and the essential problem here is because only a single site had received all the specific completed French approval processes from the various authorities and was treating patients, so we had a single site basically. We have made some changes, work with the investigators. As of today, we have two new sites now approved and ready to begin enrolling. And approval for fourth site is moving forward unlikely and that will be there around early next year and it’s also possible we might get a fifth site. So we think this is going to get done maybe a couple of quarters late. We don't think it's essential for European approval and supported data, but it's important to us because there's a placebo arm that converts crosses over to treatment with cryopreserved cells and so it's important for us to assess that data. The investigator on the trial believes enrollment to be completed by the first half of 2017. If that's a case and the primary endpoint at three months and data should be available in 2017. In the meantime three-year follow-up on the predecessor study to that European study called SCLERADEC-I. The evaluation of those patients is complete and we are evaluating that data and we will make that available present that as soon as we are able. Now ACT-OA, a few follow-up remarks from the report of the topline 48-week data for the last quarter. So as I promised at that time, we were going to dig deeper into the MRI data and do further post hoc analyses on the readouts and these are the – MRI readout by experienced radiologist blind into treatment arm. And the goal of that is to better understand what was an apparent beneficial effect of treatment over placebo in the six pre-specified measures of joint disease including cartilage loss, the level of osteophyte and bone marrow lesions which by the way all favorite cells over placebo. Now MRI changes typically take multiple years to show effect. So looking at changes from baseline to 48 weeks or a year is difficult and the size of the trial really wasn't powered to see such effects. However, we did see interesting findings in the six pre-specified measures and we were curious to dig deeper. We did look at certain MOAKS parameters, MOAKS is the MRI grading scale that was used in the trial. In certain MOAKS parameters such as Hoffa-synovitis and meniscal tears exhibited so few events that it really precluded meaningful analysis. However, with regard to more common findings of cartilage loss which is an important feature found in the osteoarthritic joint. The post hoc analysis revealed that from baseline to 48 weeks, three out of 10 patients had advancing disease in at least one MOAKS criteria across all groups, where most patients about seven out of 10 had stable disease during the period. So as I mentioned before that’s pretty consistent with the published data and the rate of decline in the joint in osteoarthritis patients. So to strengthen the pool size, in other words, we have relatively low [straight] for just looking at a per patient basis, we can strengthen the pool size or the end size. We pull data from all patients and examine the data by sub region. And based on that analysis, we found that full thickness cartilage loss was reduced in the treatment arm in 10 of 14 knee sub regions examined, all six tibial regions and in all four of the load-bearing important central regions of the joint. The data also suggests that there maybe a beneficial effect on the knee joint and a possible regenerative paradigm in this data. In fact, trial is showing a beneficial effect, any beneficial effect on the knee joint and a possible regenerative paradigm in this data. In fact, trial is showing a beneficial effect any beneficial effect on knee pathology and cartilage are rare. So a very interesting findings, but the despite this I think we want to be cautious not to over interpret this in a single [unpowered] trial and further clinical research is required to both confirm the effects and establish its clinical significance. A meeting presentation full length manuscript summarizing the data are anticipated and our business goal remains the same. Never want to leverage this data to help enhance our customer base and drive therapeutic utilization in Japan for a therapy that we think works for patients and patients have been happy and have been treated. And then also number two to find the development partner to kick the ball further and run it down the field which is in full swing. So now the urinary incontinence. The ADRESU trial is taking increasing importance as we get over the hump in terms of enrollment. That trial is fully funded by the Japanese government. It's essentially now at about 50% enrollment offsite enrolling and we anticipate completion of enrollment in 2017 based on all the sites enrolling in current enrollment rate. And we still look for data that would be available sometime in 2018. It is an approval trial and would drive reimbursement in our view. The trials also not only gaining clinical enrollment momentum, but it's also creating increased visibility in Japan as it's one of the most advanced regenerative medicine therapy trials ongoing today. And this is actually creating some opportunities for us as well. Now to the BARDA trial. The FDA IDE filing for the trial which is going to be called RELIEF is essentially complete and will soon be filed. We are waiting on some outside vendor data to send that in. RELIEF will be officially known as a trial of the safety and feasibility of adipose-derived regenerative cells or ADRC’s in the treatment of partial thickness and full thickness thermal wounds. Assuming no delays, we remain on track for approval by year-end of 2016 with enrollment commencing in the mid-2017. As mentioned recently, BARDA expanded the current contract option by approximately $2.5 million. Now let me discuss a potential new trial to our pipeline. First the background. So breast cancer is increasing in Japan like it is around the world. In fact and look back in 2010 there were approximately 50,000 diagnosed with breast cancer and growing at about year-over-year and about 60% of those patients receive breast conservation therapy and treated with concomitant radiation, so a partial mastectomy and radiation. Many osteophyte from the radiation. This globally is an unmet need and there are currently no approved therapies in Japan to treat this population of patients. Shareholders who known us for a while know that we've completed two trials in this area and actually osteophyte has been working on an approval trial in Japan for some time quietly behind the scenes. We were informed the Q3 that Cancer Center Ariake in Tokyo which put that perspective for those are familiar with the hospitals in Japan. That's a sister hospital to M.D. Anderson here in Japan. They have received both internal IRB and Japanese government approval to begin an approval trial for Cytori Cell Therapy for breast reconstruction after partial mastectomy. The principal investigator will be Dr. [indiscernible] who is the Chief of Reconstructive Surgery at Cancer Centers Ariake an important leader in the field in Japan and a member of the reimbursement committee at MHLW in Japan and I want to congratulate thank him for all his hard work behind the scenes and helping to drive this through. The trial as I mentioned is based on the previously reported restore one trial from Japan in their restore two trial in Europe both of which they have published. So what we're waiting on with respect to this trial is the final administrative protocol approval from MHLW and PMDA and at that point we can further discuss the details of the trial and the time line. And right now we more or less anticipate enrollment beginning next year. Regarding the funding of the trial, it will be internally funded, but will receive logistical support from Cytori, no direct cash support at this time and actually maybe associated with consumable revenue to Cytori, more on that later. So with that, I will hand the ball over to John.