Executive of Stem Cell Therapy Developer Purchases 20 Billion Won Worth of Company Shares in Family Name

In a Form 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mesoblast Limited (Nasdaq: MESO) non-executive director George Gregory reported that, between April 4 and April 10, he significantly increased his family’s indirect ownership of the company’s common shares through open-market purchases executed in accounts held in family members’ names. Under the name James George, approximately 4.0 million shares were acquired on April 4 at about AUD 1.42 per share—totaling roughly AUD 5.7 million (around KRW 5 billion). On April 9, further purchases of both Australian-dollar and U.S.-dollar–denominated shares were reported, amounting to approximately USD 7.2 million (around KRW 10 billion) across multiple transactions. Then, on April 10, an additional 2.3 million shares were bought in the name of another family member, Grant George, for about AUD 3.4 million. All of these transactions were open-market purchases and together substantially expanded the Gregory family’s indirect stake in Mesoblast.

On April 7, Mesoblast announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted investigational new drug (IND) clearance for Ryoncil, its allogeneic cell therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, allowing the company to proceed directly to registrational trials. In the most recent quarter, Ryoncil net sales reached about USD 30.3 million, and cumulative post-launch revenues are nearing USD 100 million. In the same month, Mesoblast also applied to the Australian Securities Exchange to list approximately 1.26 million new ordinary shares, a move that will modestly increase its free float.

Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Mesoblast is a regenerative-medicine biotech firm developing allogeneic stem-cell–based therapies for inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases. The company’s stock trades on the Nasdaq under MESO and on the ASX under MSB. Building on its first FDA-approved product, Ryoncil, Mesoblast is pursuing late-stage trials and ongoing regulatory discussions to expand indications into rare pediatric heart diseases and other conditions, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy.