ReNeuron Group plc announced further positive long-term data from the ongoing Phase 2a clinical trial of its hRPC stem cell therapy candidate in retinitis pigmentosa (RP).  RP is a group of hereditary diseases of the eye that lead to progressive loss of sight and ultimately blindness. On February 24, 2020, positive interim efficacy data from patients treated in the Phase 2a study were announced by the Company.  The data continued to show a meaningful clinical effect from the therapy at all time-points out to twelve months post-treatment, as measured by the number of letters read on the ETDRS chart (the standardised eye chart used to measure visual acuity in clinical trials).  Since those results were announced, further long-term data from the study have been gathered from patients at six, nine, twelve and now, for the first patient treated, eighteen months follow-up.  The Company reported that the latest data continue to demonstrate the efficacy of the therapy, with a clinically meaningful benefit being observed at all time-points.  These results are particularly encouraging as RP is characterized by inexorable progression to blindness, with no therapy currently available for the vast majority of patients. The results announced on February 24, 2020 excluded two subjects who experienced sight loss as a result of complications arising from the surgical procedure.  The Company reported that one of these two patients has recovered their vision and is back to at least baseline at one year post treatment. On June 17, 2020, the Company announced that it had received regulatory approval from both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to expand the ongoing Phase 2a clinical study to treat patients with RP at a higher dose level.  These approvals will enable the treatment of up to a further nine patients in the Phase 2a extension segment of the study (beyond the ten Phase 2a patients already treated).  The Company expects to commence treating patients shortly in both the U.S. and the U.K. under the revised approved study protocol, subject to a continued easing of COVID-19 related restrictions at the relevant clinical sites.  On this basis, and as announced on June 17, the Company expects to present further data from the expanded Phase 2a clinical trial during the next twelve months and expects to have sufficient data from the study to enable it to seek approval in the second half of 2021 to commence a single pivotal clinical study with its hRPC cell therapy candidate in RP.