DGAP-News

MOLOGEN AG: Grant to collaboration partner for combination study in HIV with lead product lefitolimod

DGAP-News: MOLOGEN AG / Key word(s): Alliance/Study
MOLOGEN AG: Grant to collaboration partner for combination study in HIV with
lead product lefitolimod

10.01.2017 / 15:38
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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PRESS RELEASE N 1 / 2017 of 01/10/2017

MOLOGEN AG: Grant to collaboration partner for combination study in HIV
with lead product lefitolimod

- Gilead Sciences, Inc. grant for Aarhus University Hospital

- Funding for a novel "kick-and-kill" concept of HIV eradication

- Lefitolimod to be combined with new virus-neutralizing antibodies


Berlin, 10 January 2017 - The biotech company MOLOGEN AG (ISIN
DE0006637200; Frankfurt Stock Exchange Prime Standard: MGN) announced today
that its partner, the Danish Aarhus University Hospital, has received a
grant of USD 2.75 million from the biopharmaceutical company Gilead
Sciences, Inc., Foster City, US. The grant should fund a planned clinical
study in HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) evaluating
MOLOGEN's TLR9 agonist, the Immune Surveillance Reactivator (ISR)
lefitolimod in combination with novel virus-neutralizing antibodies
developed by Rockefeller University, New York, US. MOLOGEN would provide
lefitolimod for the study. This novel combination to be investigated in the
planned study would offer the latest variant of the "kick-and-kill" concept
to treat HIV.

Dr. Mariola Söhngen, CEO of MOLOGEN, said: "In addition to our ongoing
TEACH study this innovative approach could help us to further evaluate the
potential of lefitolimod in HIV. Lefitolimod would be combined with novel
antibodies. Due to its mode of action we strongly believe that the
combination of different compounds could be of benefit in a number of
patients."

New approach of the "kick-and-kill" concept
The rationale for the novel combination is that the two compounds with
their different modes-of-action synergize to generate a more effective
attack and killing of the HIV reservoir compared to current standard HIV
treatment regiments, i.e. antiretroviral therapy (ART). The efficacy of
lefitolimod in "kick-and-kill" is currently established in the ongoing
phase I TEACH study in HIV-infected patients at Aarhus University Hospital
with Associate Professor Ole Søgaard as principal investigator. Treatment
with lefitolimod leads to broad immune system activation as shown by the
increased activation of antiviral immunity. The broadly neutralizing
antibodies act via inactivation of the virus and virus producing cells in