Senior Management Led | Transactions

Has Sold Its Business To

Histogenics Corporation, a privately held regenerative medicine company, announced today that it has acquired ProChon BioTech Ltd. in a stock-for-stock exchange. Histogenics new management team will be lead by President & CEO, Patrick O’Donnell, formerly CEO of ProChon BioTech, Ltd. Mr. O’Donnell will also participate as a member of the Board of Directors. The current investors provide for a strong investor syndicate that includes Altima Partners, Boston Millennia Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, and ProChon Holdings BV. Arnold Freedman and Oded Ben-Joseph, currently partners at Outcome Capital, served as investment banker and were responsible for identifying and arranging the transaction.

“This acquisition positions the new Histogenics as a leading regenerative medicine Company with products in the clinic, with solid intellectual property, and with experienced commercial and technical management. Merging these two companies will have a significant positive impact on the adoption of regenerative medicine, beginning with cartilage regeneration and extending to other applications in the near term” said Mr. O’Donnell. “We will leverage each company’s distinctive capabilities to develop a broad regenerative medicine pipeline that will address surgical applications in orthopedics, vascular, and neurosurgery. We are excited and very enthusiastic about the results we have seen to date and the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Presently the Company has very positive Phase II clinical data on its NeoCart™ autologous cartilage regeneration technology and the pivotal clinical trial is presently underway. The Company also has promising clinical data on products that augment cartilage repair in microfracture procedures and has promising preclinical results in soft-tissue regeneration based on a combination of proprietary growth factor, stem cell, scaffold, and bioadhesive technologies.  The initial focus of the Company will be to complete the NeoCart™ Phase III clinical study and expedite the process of bringing this exceptionally promising cartilage regeneration product to market in the United States, Europe and Israel.

The sports medicine market is one of the fastest growing segments in the orthopaedic market and the cartilage repair/regeneration segment has long been seen as the next major opportunity in the industry. Surgeons and patients have long awaited technologies that would address the pain associated with cartilage defects, predominately in the
knee, so as to avoid the more aggressive implantation of a metal prosthesis. Over 550,000
cartilage repair procedures on patients between the ages of 10 and 60 years of age will be
performed in the United States.

Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent articular disease, affecting nearly 28 million people in the U.S., and predominantly involves the weight-bearing joints including the knee. An estimated 6.7 million Americans suffer from symptomatic chondral and osteochondral lesions of the knee and nearly 100,000 have osteochondritis dissecans (an osteochondral fracture).

About Histogenics
Histogenics develops and manufactures products that improve the body’s ability to regenerate healthy cartilage, improve joint function and prevent degenerative disease. Formed in 2000, the company takes an interdisciplinary approach to engineering neocartilage that looks, acts, and lasts like hyaline cartilage. It is developing new treatments for sports injuries and other orthopedic conditions, where demand is growing for long-term alternatives to joint replacement. Histogenics has successfully completed Phase I and Phase II clinical trials in which the NeoCart autologous tissue implant’s effectiveness is compared to that of standard microfracture surgery. Based in Waltham,

Massachusetts, the company is privately held. Major investors include Boston Millennia Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, Altima Partners, Stryker Corporation, Inflection Point Partners, Takagi Sangyo and a private investor. For more information, visit www.histogenics.com.

About ProChon Biotech, Ltd.
ProChon is a privately held biotechnology company focused on modulating the fibroblast growth factor system to enable it to create more effective solutions for tissue regeneration. ProChon’s products combine cell regeneration technologies with proprietary growth factors and biocompatible scaffolds to restore injured or chronically damaged tissues to normal. ProChon has filed patent applications, licensed patents for core technologies and products, and has been granted patents in the United States, Europe, Israel and Australia.