Organovo to Explore Strategic Alternatives and Implement Restructuring Plan

Organovo Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONVO) (“Organovo”) today announced that it has engaged Roth Capital Partners (“Roth”) as its financial advisor to assist in the exploration of strategic alternatives. This decision was reached by Organovo’s board of directors after concluding that the Company had not generated decisive scientific data supporting the prolonged functionality and therapeutic benefit of its lead therapeutic liver tissue candidate, and that the necessary redevelopment of the tissue would require significant time, additional resources and development risks, and would likely not provide sufficient return on investment for the Company’s stockholders. To support the range of strategic alternatives being explored, the Company is also implementing a restructuring plan to significantly reduce expenses associated with its lead program in order to preserve cash.

“After a rigorous assessment of our liver therapeutic tissue program, we’ve concluded that the variability of biological performance and related duration of potential benefits presents development challenges and lengthy timelines that no longer support an attractive opportunity given our resources,” said Taylor J. Crouch, CEO, Organovo. “As a result, we’ve suspended development of this lead program and have engaged Roth to explore strategic alternatives focused on maximizing stockholder value. We’re also taking restructuring steps to manage our resources and extend our cash runway as we evaluate a range of ways to generate value from our technology platform and intellectual property, our commercial and development capabilities, and our financial assets.”

The Company has cancelled its fiscal first-quarter 2019 earnings call scheduled for August 8, 2019 as a result of today’s announcement. Potential strategic alternatives that may be explored or evaluated as part of this process include the potential for an acquisition, merger, reverse merger, business combination, sale of assets, licensing or other strategic transaction involving the Company. There can be no assurance, however, that this process will result in any such transaction.