OREANDA-NEWS. Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Yoshihiko Hatanaka, “Astellas”) and Ocata Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCAT, President and CEO: Paul Wotton, “Ocata”) today announced that Astellas has extended, through its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Laurel Acquisition Inc., the offering period of the tender offer to purchase all issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Ocata for a price of US$8.50 per share, net to the holder in cash (“Tender Offer”) until 5:00 pm, U.S. Eastern Time, on February 9, 2016. The Tender Offer, as previously extended, was scheduled to expire at 5:00 pm, U.S. Eastern Time, on January 21, 2016. The further extension of the Tender Offer will allow Ocata’s stockholders additional time to tender their shares into the Tender Offer.

All terms and conditions of the Tender Offer shall remain unchanged during the extended offering period.

“We remain very excited about the combination of Astellas and Ocata and are fully committed to achieving a successful completion of the transaction,” commented Yoshihiko Hatanaka, President and CEO, Astellas. “We highly value Ocata’s R&D capabilities, where we plan to make further investments, and expect Ocata to take a key role within Astellas’ R&D in ophthalmology and cell therapy. We believe that Astellas’ offer represents an attractive proposal to Ocata’s shareholders, and we look forward to closing the tender offer at the end of this offering period.”

About Astellas

Astellas Pharma Inc., based in Tokyo, Japan, is a company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. We focus on Urology, Oncology, Immunology, Nephrology and Neuroscience as prioritized therapeutic areas while advancing new therapeutic areas and discovery research leveraging new technologies/modalities. We are also creating new value by combining internal capabilities and external expertise in the medical/healthcare business. Astellas is on the forefront of healthcare change to turn innovative science into value for patients. For more information, please visit our website at www.astellas.com/en.

About Ocata

Ocata Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of new therapies in the field of regenerative medicine. Ocata’s most advanced products are in clinical trials for the treatment of Stargardt’s macular degeneration, dry age-related macular degeneration, and myopic macular degeneration. Ocata’s intellectual property portfolio includes pluripotent stem cell platforms – hESC and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) – and other cell therapy research programs.