Histogenics (NSDQ:HSGX) said last month that it raised $30 million in a private placement it plans to use for a pivotal trial of its NeoCart regenerative knee treatment.
The Waltham, Mass.-based company said the round, of equity, convertible stock and warrants, was led by new institutional investors and some of its existing backers. The cash infusion should be enough to last the company through the middle of 2018, Histogenics said.
NeoCart is designed to stimulate the body’s ability to regenerate cartilage in the knee, using neocartilagenous tissue developed from patients’ chondrocyte cells. The 245-patient Phase III trial, which launched in 2010, aims to compare the Neocart treatment with surgical micro-fracture repair, with a primary outcome of change in physical function and pain assessment at 1 year and a secondary outcome of cartilage repair measured by MRI at 1 year.
Histogenics said today that it expects to close enrollment in the trial during the 2nd quarter of 2017 and report top-line data on the primary endpoint by the middle of the following year.
The company raised $65 million in December 2014 with an initial public offering, selling nearly 6 million shares at $11 each – offering more shares at a lower price than the $13 to $15 range the company set earlier that year.
A prior funding round pulled down $49 million in July 2012, more than a year after its merger with Prochon Biotech and a $34 million round.