E-therapeutics Regulatory News (ETX)

E-therapeutics EXTENDs RESEARCH collaboration with NOVO NORDISK and signs first agreement on its new "GAINs" functional genomics technology

·; Genome-associated interaction networks (GAINs) is a novel functional genomics technology platform developed by e-therapeutics

·; GAINs has the potential to greatly improve the understanding of complex diseases, identify previously unknown disease processes and pathways and drive the discovery of new drugs and diagnostics

·; e-therapeutics and Novo Nordisk are now working together on the application of two of e-therapeutics' technology platforms in the area of type 2 diabetes

Oxford, UK, 1st August 2019 - e-therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX, "e-therapeutics") is pleased to announce that it has signed an extension to its existing research collaboration with Novo Nordisk in the type 2 diabetes space. To date, the companies have been using e-therapeutics' proprietary Network-Driven Drug Discovery (NDD) platform to discover potentially novel biological mechanisms and therapeutic approaches for a specific area of type 2 diabetes.

Under the amended agreement, e-therapeutics will now also use its new Genome-Associated Interaction Networks (GAINs) technology to analyse population genomics data from patients with type 2 diabetes. This is the first research agreement for e-therapeutics' new and novel functional genomics technology.

The amendment extends the original contract by six months to June 2020 and will also allow further work to be performed using e-therapeutics' NDD technology. In addition, output from the GAINs collaboration can be included in any subsequent work and commercial agreement.

Dr Ray Barlow, CEO at e-therapeutics, said: "We are very pleased that Novo Nordisk, a global leader in diabetes care and innovation, has chosen to extend our original agreement. In addition to extending the original contract, this marks the first deal on our new "GAINs" functional genomics technology in a hugely important disease area.

We are really excited by the potential of GAINs to greatly improve the understanding of complex diseases, identify previously unknown disease processes and pathways and facilitate the discovery of new drugs.

Over the last 20 years, the pharma industry has conducted many population genomics studies to understand the genetic basis of disease, most of which have met with limited success. Using GAINs, we are now able to interrogate genomics data from patients with complex, polygenic disease and shed new light on important and novel biological pathways for particular groups of patients.

GAINs has potentially broad application in therapeutic, diagnostic and biomarker fields. We only began to market GAINs to the industry two months ago and are encouraged by the interest already shown."

Other than the extension in term and additional payments, the terms and conditions of the original agreement remain in place. Novo Nordisk has the option to license relevant IP generated under the collaboration. Any future license would require mutual agreement of commercial terms.

ENDS

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About e-therapeutics

e-therapeutics is an Oxford, UK-based company with a unique and powerful computer-based approach to drug discovery, founded on our industry-leading expertise in network biology.

We have created two proprietary, unique and productive technology platforms. The first is our proprietary Network-Driven Drug Discovery (NDD) platform, which is based on sophisticated network science and employs techniques such as machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and state-of-the-art data analysis tools. NDD allows the more efficient discovery of new and better drugs and has been validated in multiple and diverse areas of biology.

The second is our Genome Associated Network Interactions (GAINs) platform. GAINs is a revolutionary and entirely novel approach to functional genomics, based on the same validated network biology and analytics expertise that underpins our NDD technologies. GAINs analyses human genetic data to allow a deep and valuable understanding about the mechanisms that cause disease. GAINs has the potential to uncover unrecognised disease processes and pathways and can enable the discovery of novel drugs, diagnostics and biomarkers in a way not previously possible from population genomics data, such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

We use our highly productive drug discovery engine to develop our own IP-protected, pre-clinical drug discovery programmes, particularly appealing to partners looking to acquire or in-license novel and differentiated assets. We are currently developing two programmes in immuno-oncology in-house and have a number of partner-ready projects in areas including fibrosis and the tumour microenvironment.

We have a partnership with Novo Nordisk in type 2 diabetes and are working on different types of collaborative partnerships with biotech, pharma and other technology companies to create sustainable mutual value.