Ortho Regenerative Technologies Inc (CSE:ORTH) has reported its financial results and highlights for the first quarter ended April 30, 2022.
Among the key highlights for the period, the company entered a material transfer agreement with an undisclosed, industry-leading, global strategic medical company for the exclusive use of their proprietary platelet-rich plasma system in its ORTHO-R rotator cuff tear repair, phase I/II US clinical trial.
"Ortho delivered important milestones during the first quarter of (FY)2023. We signed a material transfer agreement with a global company, closed an oversubscribed private placement and secured key patents that will protect our core IP for many years to come,” Philippe Deschamps, Ortho president and CEO said in a statement.
READ: Ortho Regenerative Technologies fully activates half of clinical sites in upcoming rotator cuff repair trial
"With seven clinical centers now screening and recruiting patients, enrolment of first patients is imminent and will accelerate in the coming weeks. We expect one additional center to start screening patients shortly and the remaining two over the coming months, at which point we will have our 10 sites actively screening and recruiting patients, thus providing a steady flow of patients for enrollment in our study," he added.
In April 2022, the company closed an oversubscribed non-brokered private placement and issued 16,000,000 units at $0.20 per each, raising total gross proceeds of $3.2 million.
Ortho's senior vice-president and CFO Luc Mainville said the private placement allowed the company to accelerate its phase I/II US clinical trial. “All our efforts and resources are now focused on enrolling patients as quickly as possible now that screening and recruiting is officially underway.”
Also during the quarter, the company granted 2,000,000 share purchase options and 551,938 restricted share units to its CEO, Philippe Deschamps, who was appointed as its new chief executive officer in March.
Since the end of the first quarter, the company initiated recruiting patients and reported on the progress of its rotator cuff tear repair clinical trial. It also hired Jonathan Sackier as a consultant to serve as the new senior vice-president for medical affairs. Additionally, the company received, through its partnership with Polytechnique Montreal, a $500,000 non-dilutive grant from Axelys, to advance the development of its second technology platform indication, ORTHO-M, for meniscus repair.
In May 2022, the company received a key US, Canadian and European composition and method patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for its ORTHO-R soft tissue repair platform protecting its core intellectual property until 2035.
Ortho is a clinical-stage orthobiologics company dedicated to the development of novel therapeutic soft tissue repair technologies to dramatically improve the success rate of orthopedic and sports medicine surgeries.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com