BioTime first-quarter total revenue up 159% to $767,127

BioTime, Inc. (NYSE Amex: BTIM) today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010 and provided an update on recent corporate developments.

For the three months ended March 31, 2010, total quarterly revenue (including royalty income, revenue recognition of deferred license fees, and grant income) was $767,127, up 159% from $296,743 for the same period one year ago. The increase in revenue is attributable to our receipt of a $395,096 quarterly installment of our $4.7 million research grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and an increase in our royalty revenue. The net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 was $1.3 million, or ($0.04) per share, compared to a net loss of $1.5 million or ($0.06) per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, reflecting increases in research and development as we expanded our stem cell research program, and increases in other operating expenses.

Cash and cash equivalents totaled $11.2 million as of March 31, 2010, compared with $12.2 million as of December 31, 2009. During the quarter ended March 31, 2010, BioTime received $456,288 in net cash from financing activities, including $118,400 received in connection with the exercises of 75,000 options and $337,888 received in connection with the exercises of 168,944 warrants.

During the first quarter, BioTime recognized $297,000 in royalty revenue from the sale of Hextend®, BioTime's proprietary physiologically balanced blood plasma volume expander for treating low blood volume, a condition often caused by blood loss during surgery or by trauma. This compares to royalty revenue from the sale of Hextend of $222,667 during the three months ended March 31, 2009. This 33% increase in royalties is primarily attributable to an increase in sales to the United States Armed Forces by Hospira. Purchases by the Armed Forces generally take the form of intermittent, large volume orders, and cannot be predicted with certainty.

"For 2010, our goals include increasing revenue from the sale of our stem cell research products; developing stem cell therapeutic products through our subsidiaries OncoCyte Corporation and BioTime Asia, Limited, and pursuing development and marketing opportunities through ES Cell International Pte Ltd, a Singapore stem cell company that we have just acquired," said Michael West, Ph.D., our President and CEO.

"Last year, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Embryome Sciences, Inc., entered into an agreement under which Millipore Corporation became a worldwide distributor of our ACTCellerate™ human progenitor cell lines. Millipore has now launched its initial offering of Embryome Sciences' products, consisting of six novel progenitor cell lines and optimized ESpan™ growth media for the in vitro propagation of each progenitor cell line. We anticipate jointly launching 29 additional cell lines and associated ESpan™ growth media this year. In addition, during the first quarter of 2010, our subsidiary, BioTime Asia, received initial orders from four hospital-based stem cell research centers in China for BioTime's stem cell products for research and development purposes. Also, on March 16, 2010, we announced the publication of a scientific paper titled 'Spontaneous Reversal of Developmental Aging in Normal Human Cells Following Transcriptional Reprogramming,' which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Regenerative Medicine. The paper explains the use of induced pluripotent stem cell technology to reverse the developmental aging of normal human cells. Using precise genetic modifications, normal human cells were induced to reverse both the 'clock' of differentiation (the process by which an embryonic stem cell becomes the many specialized differentiated cell types of the body), and the 'clock' of cellular aging (telomere length). As a result, aged differentiated cells became young stem cells capable of regeneration. These findings may have significant implications for the development of new classes of cell-based therapies targeting age-related degenerative disease," continued Dr. West.