Sernova Announces First Quarter Fiscal Year 2016 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update

LONDON, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 15, 2016) - Sernova Corp. (TSX VENTURE:SVA)(OTCQB:SEOVF)(FRANKFURT:PSH), a clinical stage company developing medical technologies for the long-term treatment of chronic diseases including diabetes and hemophilia, announced today its financial results for the three months ending January 31, 2016 and provided an overview of recent Company highlights.

"Sernova has achieved significant milestones in the first fiscal quarter of 2016 both from the capital markets perspective and in expanding our highly disruptive regenerative medicine technology development programs for diabetes and hemophilia," said Dr. Philip Toleikis, President and CEO.

Selected Corporate Highlights through February 2016

• Sernova was selected as a member of the "2016 TSX Venture 50" and ranked fourth in the Life Sciences and Clean Technologies category based on a number of key measures of market performance, including market capitalization growth, share price appreciation and trading volume. The TSX ranked companies from among the 1,791 companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange as of December 31, 2015.
• The European Commission's Horizon 2020 program awarded a EUR5.6 million (approximately $8.5 million) non-dilutive grant to the HemAcure consortium, which consists of Sernova Corp. and five European academic and private partners. The purpose is to advance the development of a GMP clinical grade factor VIII releasing therapeutic cell product in combination with Sernova's Cell Pouch™ for the treatment of severe hemophilia A, a serious genetic bleeding disorder caused by missing or defective factor VIII in the blood stream. The therapeutic goal of the product is to use the patient's own cells corrected for the factor VIII gene.
• The Company received an initial funding payment related to the HemAcure grant in the amount of EUR566,607 (approximately $873,000).
• Our clinical islet diabetes program was advanced by entering into a service agreement with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) to establish, optimize and validate Sernova's licensed technology for creating stem cell derived therapeutic cells that produce insulin and are glucose responsive. This partnership accesses CCRM's expertise in developing production processes for cellular therapies and is an important step in our plan to commercialize an unlimited supply of glucose responsive, insulin producing cells for the Cell Pouch System™ in order to address the broader population of patients with insulin dependent diabetes.

Highlights of financial results for the three months ended January 31, 2016

The Company ended the first quarter with approximately $3.6 million of cash and marketable securities at January 31, 2016, up from $2.9 million at October 31, 2015. For the three months ended January 31, 2016 and 2015, the Company reported a net loss for the period of approximately $0.7 million and $0.6 million, respectively, or a net loss per share of $0.00 for each period.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

The following represents selected financial information as of January 31, 2016. The Company's financial information has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and this selected information should be read in conjunction with Sernova's Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended January 31, 2016, as filed on SEDAR and also available from the Company's website at www.sernova.com.

Selected Statement of Financial Position Data

	Jan. 31, 2016 $		Oct. 31, 2015 $
Cash and marketable securities	3,575,783		2,880,963
Total Assets	3,751,663		3,153,299
Current liabilities	1,183,516		199,850
Share capital, warrants and contributed surplus	32,897,701		32,606,553
Deficit	(30,329,554	)	(29,653,104	)

Selected Statement of Loss and Comprehensive Loss Data

For the three months ended:
	Jan. 31, 2016 $		Jan. 31, 2015 $
Research and development	388,483		496,481
General and administrative	280,503		142,163
Finance income	(6,530	)	(8,986	)
Finance costs	13,994		636
Loss and comprehensive loss for the period	676,450		630,294
Weighted average number of shares outstanding	142,642,706		131,477,831
Basic and diluted loss per share	0.00		0.00

Total research and development expenses, for the three months ended January 31, 2016, decreased by $107,998 compared to the equivalent period of the prior fiscal year, primarily due to an increase in contributions and tax credits during the three months ended January 31, 2016. Excluding the impact of depreciation of property and equipment, amortization of intangible assets and share-based compensation (all non-cash items), research and development expenses increased by $89,321 during the three months ended January 31, 2016 compared to the equivalent period in the prior fiscal year.

Total general and administrative expenses, for the three months ended January 31, 2016, increased by $138,340, as compared to the same period in the prior year.

On March 14, 2016, and in accordance with the Company's 2015 Incentive Plan, Sernova granted 450,000 deferred share units to its directors and 3,080,000 incentive stock options to certain officers, employees and consultants of the Company, each such option being excisable into a common share at a price of $0.225 per share on or before March 14, 2026.

About Sernova

Sernova Corp. is a clinical stage regenerative medicine Company developing medical technologies for the treatment of chronic debilitating metabolic diseases such as diabetes, blood disorders including hemophilia, and other diseases treated through replacement of proteins or hormones missing or in short supply within the body. Sernova is developing the Cell Pouch System™, an implantable medical device and therapeutic cells (donor, xenogeneic or stem cell derived therapeutic cells) which then release proteins and/or hormones as required.

Forward-Looking Information

This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Sernova believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements, which include our beliefs about the functionality of the Cell Pouch System™ and our cell technologies, are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Sernova's management on the date such statements were made. Sernova expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.