Nature of Business

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Nature of Business

Nature of Business

1.              Nature of Business

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (“we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company”) is a Maryland corporation headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. We began operations on December 23, 1992 and were a Delaware corporation until, with approval of our stockholders, we reincorporated as a Maryland corporation on May 31, 2010. We are a leading stem cell company focused on developing and marketing products to treat serious medical conditions in the inflammatory and cardiovascular disease areas, and wound healing. Our biologic drug candidates utilize adult human mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, which can selectively differentiate, based on the tissue environment, into various tissue lineages, such as muscle, bone, cartilage, marrow stroma, tendon or fat. In addition, MSCs have anti-inflammatory properties and can prevent fibrosis or scarring, which gives MSCs the potential to treat a wide variety of medical conditions. Historically, our operations have consisted primarily of research, development and clinical activities under several research collaboration agreements to bring our biologic drug candidates to the marketplace. During 2009, we created a Biosurgery business, which in 2010 we began operating as a segment separate from our Therapeutics segment.  Our Therapeutics segment is focused on developing and marketing products to treat medical conditions in the inflammatory and cardiovascular disease areas; and our Biosurgery segment focuses on products for wound healing and use in surgical procedures by harnessing the ability of cells and novel constructs to promote the body’s natural healing.