Sorrento Contributes To The Formation Of Celularity, Inc. For Breakthrough Placental Therapeutic Platform In Consortium With Leading Pharmaceutical Companies

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRNE, "Sorrento") announced that the transactions contemplated by the Contribution Agreement it entered with Celularity, Inc. ("Celularity") has closed.  Sorrento previously announced that it together with its subsidiary, TNK Therapeutics, Inc. ("TNK"), had entered into a definitive agreement ("Contribution Agreement") to offer certain immuno-oncology and cellular therapy intellectual property and assets to Celularity, a company being formed and run by former Celgene Cellular Therapeutics CEO, Robert Hariri, MD/PhD.

Celularity, Inc., a newly formed biotechnology company, today announced its acceleration of cell and tissue regenerative therapies to address unmet medical needs in cancer and chronic and degenerative disease. Celularity completed their Series A financing with contributions from several biopharma companies, including Sorrento Therapeutics, United Therapeutics Corporation and Human Longevity, Inc., and entrepreneurial investors.

Celularity has been created through the contributions of extensive intellectual property, clinical-stage assets, basic and clinical research, and development expertise including:

• Several clinical-stage immuno-oncology and regenerative medicine assets and a pipeline of pre-clinical assets
• Proprietary allogeneic ("readily accessible") immunotherapy platform
• 200+ issued and pending patents in cell therapy; robust IP for placental stem cells
• Broad fully human antibody-CAR constructs
• IND-ready joint CD38 immuno-oncology programs
• Commercial-stage functional regeneration products Biovance® and Interfyl®* and pipeline assets
• LifeBankUSA stem cell biorepository with two decades operating expertise

Founded on the pioneering work of Robert Hariri, MD, PhD, in human placenta-derived cellular therapeutics and biomaterials, Celularity's ability to procure placental stem cells, engineer potential therapies, and deploy potential treatments, positions it to harness the potential of the human placenta and operate along the entire value chain.

"Celularity was formed as a new biotechnology model designed to apply the necessary expertise to harness our placenta discovery platform across a range of unmet medical needs," said Celularity Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Robert J. Hariri, MD, PhD. "With the support of our investors, we are assembling proven regenerative medicine technology and expertise with the goal of developing transformative therapies for fatal and intractable diseases." Dr. Hariri was previously chairman, chief scientific officer and chief executive officer of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics and founder of Anthrogenesis Corporation, which Celgene acquired in 2002. Dr. Hariri is also the co-founder of Human Longevity, Inc.

The formation of Celularity leverages seminal work in the discovery of novel biologically active cell populations in the human placenta with broad therapeutic potential. Celularity will draw upon these proprietary and scalable discoveries that derive from the post-partum human placenta – an ethical and renewable source of usable biomaterials. Celularity's development program is focused on an allogeneic platform, leveraging clinically accessible, immune-tolerant cells and biomaterials from a diverse population of informed-consent donors.

Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, among the founding members of the Celularity Board of Directors and former United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner and Director of the National Cancer Institute said, "The pioneering work of Celularity founder Bob Hariri has unleashed the unique properties of placental derived stem cells which have renewed hope for creating safe and effective therapies for the most challenging degenerative diseases." Dr. von Eschenbach added, "Celularity with its focus on accelerating innovation in regenerative medicine can become the leading catalyst for cell therapy to address many of the world's unmet medical needs."

Dr. Henry Ji, President and CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics, said, "We are very excited to participate in the creation of Celularity together with Dr. Hariri and his scientific team as well as global leading biopharmaceutical companies, such as Celgene, Human Longevity Inc., and United Therapeutics. The potential for regenerative therapies in treating a wide array of chronic degenerative conditions is well known. We see important synergies for the oncology field and the potential to enhance our fight against malignant cancers. Celularity's technologies, assets, and resources will help advance selected Sorrento cellular therapy programs and potentially transform autologous cellular therapies into affordable and accessible allogeneic cell therapies."

About Celularity, Inc.

Celularity, headquartered in Warren, New Jersey, is a biotechnology company with proprietary, leading-edge technology and Intellectual Property to harness the power of the placenta. Their medicine asset portfolio consists of more than 200 issued or pending patents as well as pre-clinical and clinical assets including CAR constructs for allogeneic CAR-T/NK products, licenses of 100+ immunotherapy assets, and commercial stage biosourcing and functional regeneration businesses. For more information, please visit www.celularity.com. Follow Celularity on Social Media: @Celularity.

About United Therapeutics

United Therapeutics Corporation is a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative products to address the unmet medical needs of patients with chronic and life-threatening conditions.

About Human Longevity, Inc.

Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI) is the genomics-based, health intelligence company creating the world's largest and most comprehensive database of whole genome, phenotype and clinical data. HLI is developing and applying large scale computing and machine learning to make novel discoveries to revolutionize health. In addition to the HLIQ Whole Genome and HLIQ Oncology, HLI's business also includes the HLI Health Nucleus, a genomic powered clinical research center which uses whole genome sequence analysis, advanced clinical imaging and innovative machine learning, along with curated personal health information, to deliver the most complete picture of individual health. For more information, please visit http://www.humanlongevity.com or http://www.healthnucleus.com

About Sorrento Therapeutics

Sorrento is a clinical stage, antibody-centric, biopharmaceutical company developing new therapies to turn malignant cancers into manageable and possibly curable diseases. Sorrento's multimodal multipronged approach to fighting cancer is made possible by its' extensive Immuno-Oncology platform, including key assets such as fully human antibodies ("G-MAB™ library"), clinical stage immuno-cellular therapies ("CAR-T"), intracellular targeting antibodies ("iTAbs"), antibody-drug conjugates ("ADC"), and clinical stage oncolytic viral vectors ("Seprehvir®").

Sorrento's commitment to life-enhancing therapies for cancer patients is also demonstrated by our effort to advance a first-in-class (TRPV1 agonist) non-opioid non-addictive pain management small molecule ("RTX/resiniferatoxin"). Resiniferatoxin is completing a phase Ib trial in terminal cancer patients. For more information visit www.sorrentotherapeutics.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and any statements made for and during any presentation or meeting contain forward-looking statements related to Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. and its subsidiaries under the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the developments of and prospects for Celularity, its products and technologies; Sorrento's and TNK's products and technologies, including their respective CAR, immune-therapy/immune-oncology and antibody products and technologies;  Sorrento's ability to leverage the expertise of its employees, subsidiaries, affiliates and partners to assist the company in the execution of its strategies; and other matters that are described in Sorrento's most recent periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Sorrento's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, as amended, and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors set forth in those filings. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in this press release except as required by law.

Sorrento® and the Sorrento logo are registered trademarks of Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.,  and G-MAB™ is a trademark owned by Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.

Seprehvir®, is a registered trademark of Virttu Biologics Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TNK Therapeutics, Inc. and part of the group of companies owned by Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.

Interfyl® is a registered trademark of Alliqua BioMedical, Inc.

© 2017 Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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SOURCE Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.