Healthcare Industry News:  Skin Substitute 

Devices Regenerative Medicine Wound Care Reimbursement

 News Release - November 29, 2013

Osiris Provides Update on Proposed Ruling by CMS

COLUMBIA, Md.--(Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network)--Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (OSIR), the leading stem cell company focused on developing and marketing products in orthopedics, sports medicine and wound care, announced today that, on November 27, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their proposed ruling for the reimbursement of Skin Substitutes in the hospital outpatient setting. CMS decided to package the reimbursement for products used in advanced wound care with the related surgical procedure into a two-tier system.

The proposed ruling means that the current payment methodology for Grafix® will not immediately be impacted by the changes described in the proposed ruling. Grafix will maintain its current transitional pass-through status and that may continue until late 2015. Grafix will be exempt from the current rule and available to patients in the Hospital Outpatient Department and Ambulatory Surgical Center settings under the current Ambulatory Payment Classification payment system. Once the transitional pass-through status expires, Osiris expects Grafix to be reimbursed as a part of a packaged rate in the higher tier of the two-tier system.

“We are very well-positioned to gain market share in the chronic wound market place,” said Frank Czworka, General Manager of Wound Care for Osiris. “The overwhelming efficacy demonstrated in the controlled, randomized, multicenter study, combined with our multiple size offerings of Grafix, provides clinical and cost-effective solutions for our patients, physicians and payers.”

About Grafix

Grafix is a human cellular matrix containing living stem cells for acute and chronic wounds. It is a flexible, conforming membrane that provides a high quality source of living MSCs and growth factors directly to the site of the wound. Grafix is produced by BioSmartTM Intelligent Tissue Processing of human placental membrane. The manufacturing process maintains the integrity of the extracellular matrix, the viability of the neonatal MSCs, and the biologically active growth factors.

About Osiris Therapeutics

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. is the leading stem cell company, having developed the world’s first approved stem cell drug, remestemcel-L for graft versus host disease. Osiris’ products include Grafix and Ovation® for acute and chronic wounds, Cartiform®, a viable cartilage mesh for cartilage repair and the latest addition to Osiris’ line of products, OvationOSTM, a viable bone matrix. Osiris is a fully integrated company with capabilities in research, development, manufacturing and distribution. Osiris has developed an extensive intellectual property portfolio to protect the company's technology and commercial interests.

Osiris, Grafix, Ovation and Cartiform are registered trademarks of Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. More information can be found on the company's website, www.Osiris.com. (OSIR-G)

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, intentions, assumptions and other statements that are not historical facts. Words or phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "ongoing," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project" or similar words or phrases, or the negatives of those words or phrases, may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Examples of forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding any of the following: our product development efforts; our clinical trials and anticipated regulatory requirements, and our ability to successfully navigate these requirements; the success of our product candidates in development; status of the regulatory process for our product and product candidates; implementation of our corporate strategy; our financial performance; our product research and development activities and projected expenditures, including our anticipated timeline and clinical strategy for marketed Biosurgery products (including Grafix, Ovation, OvationOS and Cartiform) and Biosurgery products under development; our cash needs; patents, trademarks and other proprietary rights; the safety and ability of our products and potential products to address medical needs; our ability to supply a sufficient amount of our marketed products or product candidates and, if approved or otherwise commercially available products, to meet demand; our costs to comply with governmental regulations; our plans for sales and marketing; our plans regarding facilities; types of regulatory frameworks we expect will be applicable to our products and potential products; and results of our scientific research. Additional risks and uncertainties related to the sale of our ceMSC assets and the related transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement with Mesoblast include typical business transactional risks, the risk of changing relationships with customers, suppliers or employees, the risk associated with the disposition of our ceMSC assets and the increased relative dependence on and importance of our other business including our Biosurgery business, the risk that we may not be able to fully benefit from the transactions through milestone payments or royalties, payment risks, including the risk associated with receipt of equity as consideration, in lieu of cash, and the risk of dependence on others to achieve results upon which milestone or royalty payments to us are conditioned. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements for many reasons, including the factors described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other Periodic Reports filed on Form 10-Q, with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, you should not unduly rely on these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.


Source: Osiris Therapeutics

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