Longeveron Named a Finalist Team and Will Receive a $1,000,000 Milestone 2 Award for the XPRIZE Healthspan Global Competition

• Longeveron selected as a Milestone 2 Awardee based on published clinical trial results which demonstrated laromestrocel increased 6-minute walk distance in patients with Aging-related Frailty

MIAMI, Aug. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Longeveron Inc. (NASDAQ: LGVN), a clinical-stage regenerative medicine biotechnology company developing cellular therapies for life-threatening and chronic aging-related conditions, today announced that it has been selected from over 600 worldwide applicants to advance to the final phase of the XPRIZE Healthspan competition as a Milestone 2 Awardee team. Longeveron will receive the $1,000,000 Milestone 2 Award to be used towards the future competition clinical trial in accordance with the XPRIZE competition rules, with the opportunity to compete for the XPRIZE Grand Prize of up to $81 million.

XPRIZE Healthspan is a 7-year global competition incentivizing teams to develop and test therapeutics that restore muscle, cognition, and immune function in adults aged 50 to 90 by a minimum of 10 years, with an ambitious goal of 20 years, to extend healthy life within one year or less of treatment.

“We are extremely proud and enthusiastic to participate as a Milestone 2 Awardee of XPRIZE Healthspan, a 7-year, $101 million global competition that aims to revolutionize the way we approach human aging,” said Stephen H. Willard, Chief Executive Officer of Longeveron. “We look forward to the next chapter of the competition as we continue to develop our stem cell therapy that we believe has the potential to have a significant impact for patients and their families, and extend healthy life.”

“Our stem cell therapy laromestrocel is an allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell supported by a robust intellectual property portfolio of 52 issued patents worldwide. Its potential mechanisms of action comprising anti-inflammatory, pro-vascular, and pro-regenerative effects support its potential application across multiple important indications with high unmet medical need,” commented Dr. Joshua Hare, Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer and Executive Chairman of Longeveron. “Laromestorcel has delivered several positive initial results across 5 clinical trials in 3 indications - Alzheimer’s Disease, Aging-related Frailty, and Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a rare pediatric and orphan-designated disease. Based on positive initial data, laromestrocel development programs have received five U.S. FDA designations: for the HLHS program - Orphan Drug designation, Fast Track designation, and Rare Pediatric Disease designation; and, for the Alzheimer’s Disease program - Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation and Fast Track designation. We continue to advance a “pipeline-in-a-product” strategy, with multiple indications that can be independently developed, partnered, or licensed, creating multiple potential pathways for value creation.”

XPRIZE team applications were rigorously evaluated for scientific merit and clinical readiness to identify the best, most feasible, and safe approaches to increase human healthspan. The Milestone 2 Awardees, out of more than 600 applicants across 58 countries, were selected as Finalist Awardees. The XPRIZE criteria was that the Finalist Awardees must present a single or combination therapeutic approach that demonstrates feasibility and potential to restore or preserve muscular, cognitive, and immune function lost to age-related degradation by at least 10 years, with an ambitious goal of 20 years, and deliver their therapy in 1-year or less in adults aged 50-90 years who are free of major or life-threatening disease and disability. The Top 10 Milestone 2 Award-winning teams are each receiving $1,000,000 to advance their therapeutic approach into the final phase of the competition, where teams will conduct coordinated clinical trials through 2029. The grand prize will award up to $81 million to the winning team.

About XPRIZE
XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. For 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at XPRIZE.org.

About Longeveron Inc.

Longeveron is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing regenerative medicines to address unmet medical needs. The Company’s lead investigational product is laromestrocel (Lomecel-B®), an allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy product isolated from the bone marrow of young, healthy adult donors. Laromestrocel has multiple potential mechanisms of action encompassing pro-vascular, pro-regenerative, anti-inflammatory, and tissue repair and healing effects with broad potential applications across a spectrum of disease areas. Longeveron is pursuing four pipeline indications: hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Pediatric Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) and Aging-related Frailty. Laromestrocel development programs have received five distinct and important U.S. FDA designations: for the HLHS program - Orphan Drug designation, Fast Track designation, and Rare Pediatric Disease designation; and, for the AD program - Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation and Fast Track designation. For more information, visit www.longeveron.com or follow Longeveron on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflect management’s current expectations, assumptions, and estimates of future operations, performance and economic conditions, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those anticipated, expressed, or implied by the statements made herein. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expects,” “intend,” “looks to,” “may,” “on condition,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “preliminary,” “project,” “see,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words, or by discussion of strategy or goals or other future events, circumstances, or effects. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, the ability of our clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy of our product candidates, and other positive results; our ability to successfully transition toward a more capital-efficient, asset-light operating model; our ability to secure one or more strategic licensing partnerships for our stem cell therapy laromestrocel in our development programs; the ability to reach alignment with the FDA on a potential path toward regulatory approval; receipt of trial results and other available evidence sufficient to support the Company filing a BLA following the readout of top-line results of the ELPIS II data; the timing and focus of our ongoing and future preclinical studies and clinical trials, and the reporting of data from those studies and trials; market and other conditions, our cash position and need to raise additional capital, the difficulties we may face in obtaining access to capital, and the dilutive impact it may have on our investors; our financial performance, and ability to continue as a going concern; the period over which we estimate our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our future operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements; the ability of our clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy of our investigational product candidates, and other positive results; the size of the market opportunity for certain of our investigational product candidates, including our estimates of the number of patients who suffer from the diseases we are targeting; our ability to scale production and commercialize the investigational product candidate for certain indications; the success of competing therapies that are or may become available; the beneficial characteristics, safety, efficacy and therapeutic effects of our investigational product candidates; our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our investigational product candidates in the U.S. and other jurisdictions; our plans relating to the further development of our investigational product candidates, including additional disease states or indications we may pursue; our plans and ability to obtain or protect intellectual property rights, including extensions of existing patent terms where available and our ability to avoid infringing the intellectual property rights of others; the need to hire additional personnel and our ability to attract and retain such personnel; and our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing.

Further information relating to factors that may impact the Company’s results and forward-looking statements are disclosed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Longeveron’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 17, 2026, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and its Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company operates in highly competitive and rapidly changing environment; therefore, new factors may arise, and it is not possible for the Company’s management to predict all such factors that may arise nor assess the impact of such factors or the extent to which any individual factor or combination thereof, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release based on information available as of the date of this press release, are inherently uncertain, and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation, other than imposed by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Investor and Media Contact:
Derek Cole
Investor Relations Advisory Solutions
derek.cole@iradvisory.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

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Stephen Willard

Stephen Willard, Chief Executive Officer, Longeveron Inc. (LGVN)

Joshua Hare

Joshua Hare, MD, FACC, FAHA, Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer and Executive Chairman, Longeveron