Aequus Pharmaceuticals Lists on the TSX Venture Exchange and Appoints New Director

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 17, 2015) - Aequus Pharmaceuticals Inc. ("Aequus" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:AQS) announced today that the Company's common shares have been listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") under the trading symbol "AQS".

Aequus was founded in January 2013 with the intention of developing and commercializing long-acting alternatives to currently approved drugs that are limited by non-compliance, high-frequency dosing, first-pass metabolism side effects or painful injections. Aequus' pipeline has focused to date on long-acting transdermal formulations for certain psychiatry and neurology medications where low patient compliance could lead to clinically significant relapses. Its lead program, AQS-1301, is a once-weekly transdermal formulation of aripiprazole, for the potential use in the treatment of irritability associated with autistic disorder, bipolar I disorder, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder.

"Over the past two years we have made significant advances in defining our pipeline and optimizing the formulation for our lead program," said Mr. Janzen, Chairman and CEO of Aequus. "Being publicly traded is a fundamental step for our company, giving us access to broader pools of capital and enabling our strategic plan for growth."

At the same time, Aequus is pleased to announce that it has appointed Hamed Shahbazi as an independent director on its board of directors effective immediately. Mr. Shahbazi is the founder, Chairman and CEO of TIO Networks, a multi-channel payment solution that specializes in delivering consumer bill payment and other financial services through a variety of automated self-service, retail point-of-sale, mobile and web-based methodologies. "We are delighted to welcome Mr. Shahbazi to the Aequus team," said Mr. Janzen. "His many years of experience as an entrepreneur and public company director will be a great benefit to the Company."

The Company also announced today that it has granted 750,000 incentive stock options to its directors and officers in accordance to the Company's Stock Option Plan. These stock options are granted for an eight-year term and an exercise price of $0.55 per common share. Of these options, 432,500 will vest immediately and 317,500 will vest over a 2-year period starting March 6, 2016.