E-therapeutics Regulatory News (ETX)

e-therapeutics plc

("e-therapeutics" or "the Company")

Key Milestone Achieved and Significant Progress on Galapagos Collaboration

Oxford, UK, 12 April 2022 - e-therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX; OTCQX: ETXPF), a specialist in computational drug discovery with a focus on developing RNA interference ("RNAi") therapeutics, today announces that it has reached a key milestone in its collaboration with Galapagos NV ("Galapagos"), a fully integrated European biotech focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel modes of action medicines for diseases with large unmet medical needs primarily  in inflammation, fibrosis and other indications.

This key milestone results in a cash payment to e-therapeutics, following the successful characterisation by the Company of the mechanism of action of hit compounds ("hits") identified earlier in the collaboration. These hits, which were originally identified through e-therapeutics' proprietary computational discovery platform, have been experimentally validated by Galapagos in relevant assays.

The collaboration with Galapagos has achieved the goal of successfully identifying potential therapeutic strategies in a specific area of biology associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("IPF") and potentially other fibrotic indications. In keeping with previous e-therapeutics projects, the hit rate in identification of active compounds was several orders of magnitude higher than industry standard, further validating e-therapeutics' robust computational biology methods.

e-therapeutics has now achieved all pre-agreed near-term milestones and the future of the identified hits and targets will be determined by Galapagos according to its strategic priorities.

Under the terms of the agreement, e-therapeutics is eligible to receive additional milestone payments through pre-clinical and clinical development, regulatory as well as commercial milestones. The Company also remains free to explore partnering opportunities in all other areas of biology relating to IPF and fibrosis.

Ali Mortazavi, Chief Executive Officer of e-therapeutics, commented: "We are delighted to report significant progress on our collaboration with Galapagos, focused on the identification of both targets and small molecules in IPF. This constitutes further recognition of the impact of our computational platform in an area of high unmet medical need. Our proprietary drug discovery platform can unlock indications, therapeutic areas and mechanisms that are challenging to carry out discovery in and shed light on complex human biology, significantly increasing the efficiency of the R&D process at the foundational stages."

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 which has been incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. 

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About Galapagos NV

Galapagos NV discovers, develops and commercializes small molecule medicines with novel modes of action. Galapagos'pipeline comprises discovery through Phase 3 programs in inflammation, fibrosis and other indications. The company's ambition is to become a leading global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative medicines. More information at www.glpg.com.

About e-therapeutics plc

e-therapeutics plc is a UK-based company integrating computational power and biology to accelerate the discovery of life-transforming medicines. The Company has developed and validated a powerful, disease and modality agnostic computational approach to drug discovery, leveraging its industry-leading expertise in network biology to fully capture and interrogate human disease complexity.

The Company's multi-disciplinary team builds computational models of biological functions to transform the search for new medicines, interventions, mechanisms and genetic support. Its biology-led in silico laboratory enables rapid hypothesis generation and phenotypic screening of millions of compounds leading to 100-1000x higher hit rates in the wet lab and successful mode of action elucidation. Novel targets can also be identified, prioritised and assessed. Harnessing internal target gene discoveries, e-therapeutics is currently building an in-house pipeline of RNAi based medicines, using its proprietary GalNAc-siRNA technology.

e-therapeutics has deployed and validated its disease-agnostic computational drug discovery platform both in house and with partners, including Novo Nordisk, Galapagos NV and a US-based, top 5 pharmaceutical company.