In a recent
shareholder update, ISCO’s Executive Vice President, Dr. Simon Craw drew
attention to the company’s strong financial performance and clinical
achievements in 2013. Craw said that these factors were strong indicators of
where he expects ISCO to be headed in 2014.
For key indicators
of company performance in 2013, Craw pointed to three indicators: ISCO’s growth
of full-year revenue by 35 percent, successful cost containment, and
achievement of a slew of research and development milestones that bode well for
the future. For full-year performance, ISCO reported revenues of $6.15 million
and a full-year net loss of $10.5 million ($0.09 per share), up from a
full-year net loss of $9.8 million in 2012 ($0.013 per share). Notably, on the
call ISCO’s CFO Jay Novak reinforced that the company’s careful cost control
had kept the company from a more pronounced net loss in the face of its
substantial research and development efforts.
In a business update
issued in mid-March, Dr. Andrey Semechkin, company CEO and board Co-chairman,
touched upon ISCO’s pre-IND meeting with the FDA for its Parkinson’s disease
cell therapy, and its plans for completion of the FDA’s required pharmacology
and safety studies by this year’s end. Afterward, he noted, ISCO plans to file
the IND for the potentially groundbreaking therapeutic solution. For business
plan execution, Semechkin said that ISCO was committed to growing its
commercial subsidiaries while maintaining strong efforts toward cutting costs.
ISCO’s Parkinson’s
disease program incorporates usage of human parthenogenetic neural stem cells
(hPNSCs), which are derived from ISCO’s proprietary histocompatible human
pluripotent stem cells (hpSCs). In the words of the company, this cutting-edge
cellular product comprises “self-renewing multipotent cells that are precursors
for the major cells of the central nervous system.” In laymen’s terms, the
ability of hPNSC to be differentiated into key neurons, and to be expressed as
key neurotrophic factors for protection of the nigrostriatal system of the
human brain, offers strong potential for treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
At the heart of
ISCO’s therapeutic application, development, and commercialization efforts is
its core technology, parthenogenesis. The technology uses unfertilized human
eggs, or oocytes, for creation of hpSCs. These stem cells are said to hold
tremendous therapeutic potential for tens of millions of patients with severe
diseases of the eye, nervous system, or liver.
For long-term market
positioning, ISCO has adopted a novel business model for the biotech space. The
company leverages business units that generate revenue from the sale of
products developed from scientific discoveries made by its research team.
Currently, ISCO leverages two subsidiaries, Lifeline Skin Care and Lifeline
Cell Technology for self-sustainment of current R&D efforts and short-term,
practical applications of its core technologies.
The Parkinson’s
Disease Foundation says that 7-10 million people worldwide live with
Parkinson’s disease. Around one million of these people live in just the United
States; more than the combined amount of people diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis, muscular distrophy, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. With ISCO’s
Parkinson’s disease program on the rise, Parkinson’s disease patients may be
given a groundbreaking answer to their affliction.
For more
information, visit www.internationalstemcell.com
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