Why Lineage Cell Therapeutics Is Rising In Pre-market?

(RTTNews) - Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (LCTX) said the company and its unit, Cell Cure Neurosciences, have entered into an exclusive worldwide collaboration and license agreement with Roche and Genentech, for the development and commercialization of a retinal pigment epithelium cell therapy for the treatment of ocular disorders, including advanced dry age-related macular degeneration with geographic atrophy. Genentech will assume responsibility for further clinical development and commercialization of Lineage's OpRegen program, which currently is being evaluated in a phase 1/2a open-label, dose escalation clinical safety and efficacy study.

Genentech will pay Lineage a $50 million upfront payment and Lineage is eligible to receive up to $620 million in additional milestone payments, in addition to tiered double- digit royalties.

Shares of Lineage Cell Therapeutics were up 15% in pre-market trade on Monday.