Melbourne-based stem cell and regenerative medicine company, Cynata Therapeutics (ASX:CYP), has announced that it has received an R&D Tax Incentive refund of $932,580.65 for the 2014/2015 financial year.
“The R&D Tax Incentive is an important program and this refund provides a very useful addition to the Company’s balance sheet and extends our operating runway at a time when we plan to soon commence the clinical trial of our first proprietary Cymerus mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) product, CYP-001,” said Dr Ross Macdonald, Cynata’s Chief Executive Officer.
Cymerus originates from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a world leader in stem cell research. The proprietary technology is designed to address a critical shortcoming in existing methods of production of MSCs for therapeutic use, which is the ability to achieve economic manufacture at commercial scale. Cymerus achieves this through the production of a particular type of MSC precursor, called a mesenchymoangioblast.
The Government is currently reviewing the R&D Tax Incentive programme, having already imposed an expenditure claim threshold of $100 million. It is also attempting to cut claims by 1.5 per cent.
A recently released issues papers said the programme needs to be reviewed to ensure it is delivering the policy rationale of encouraging additional R&D activity.