Mesoblast chief executive Silviu Itescu has refused to answer questions over a share deal in 2011 while the biotech’s accumulated losses reach around $850 million today.

In December 2010 Mesoblast completed the acquisition of Angioblast where Mr Itescu was a related party and owner of 905,050 shares, according to a signed EGM notice around the deal on August 27, 2010. All Angioblast shareholders (of which Mr Itescu was the largest at 41.9 per cent as its founder, and Mesoblast owned 32.6 per cent) elected to take Mesoblast shares in exchange for their Angioblast shares.