Caladrius Biosciences Announces Merger Partner, Cend Therapeutics, has Treated First Patient in Phase 2b Trial of CEND-1 in Collaboration with Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Cancer Trials Group

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., June 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Caladrius Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLBS) (“Caladrius” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative therapies designed to treat or reverse disease, announces that its merger partner in the creation of Lisata Therapeutics (“Lisata”), Cend Therapeutics, Inc. (“Cend”) today indicated that the first patient has been treated in the Phase 2b study of CEND-1 in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel for the treatment of first-line, metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The ASCEND trial is a 125-patient, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial being conducted at up to 40 sites in Australia and New Zealand led by the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Cancer Trials Group (“AGITG”) in collaboration with the NHMRC Clinical Trial Centre at the University of Sydney. Cend will provide study drug and regulatory support. The continued development of CEND-1 is the subject of a collaboration agreement with and investment in Cend by Caladrius. It is expected that Cend-1 will become the centerpiece of the combined development pipelines of Cend and Caladrius under the Lisata banner.