Asterias Biotherapeutics Completes Public Offering, Raised $5.5M In Proceeds

Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT:

) (the "Company"), a leading biotechnology company in the emerging field of regenerative medicine, announced today that it has completed the previously announced underwritten public offering and concurrent private placement of its common stock. The Company raised $5.5 million in aggregate gross proceeds from the public offering and the private placement, which it intends to use for the continued development of product candidates through clinical trials and for working capital and general corporate purposes. "This investment by new and existing investors, as well as by management, demonstrates the continued confidence in our strategic direction and the progress achieved with respect to our two key clinical development programs that have the potential to address significant unmet medical needs using our pluripotent stem cell technology platform," stated Pedro Lichtinger, President and CEO of Asterias. "Of our two lead product candidates, AST-OPC1 for the treatment of complete cervical spinal cord injury has been cleared for a Phase 1/2a clinical trial and AST-VAC2 is expected to enter a Phase 1 clinical trial. Our strengthened cash position, combined with the non-dilutive funding that we secured last year from partnerships with leading scientific institutions, provides resources and flexibility required to execute our strategic plan in order to further advance these two products through meaningful clinical milestones." MLV & Co. LLC served as Sole Book-Running Manager for the public offering. The common stock sold in the public offering was offered by the Company pursuant to a registration statement previously filed and declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission.