NEOVACS ANNOUNCES THAT ITS PARTNER BIOSENSE GLOBAL HAS EXERCISED ITS OPTION TO ACQUIRE THE EXCLUSIVE LICENCE FOR IFNalpha KINOID TO TREAT LUPUS IN CHINA

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 NEOVACS ANNOUNCES THAT ITS PARTNER BIOSENSE GLOBAL HAS EXERCISED ITS OPTION TO ACQUIRE THE EXCLUSIVE LICENCE FOR IFNalpha KINOID TO TREAT LUPUS IN CHINA

Paris and Boston, 11 September 2018 - 07H00am CEST- Neovacs (Euronext Growth Paris ALNEV), leader in active immunotherapy for the treatment of auto-immune diseases, today announces that its partner Biosense Global has exercised its option as stipulated in the license agreement signed on February 2017 for a global value of up to 65 million euros. This agreement covers the development and commercialization in China of the therapeutic vaccine IFNalpha Kinoid for the indication Lupus^[1].

The decision by Biosense Global to exercise their option follows the results of the Phase IIb trial achieved by Neovacs with its IFNalpha  Kinoid in Lupus, which allows proceeding with the clinical development into phase III^[2].

Biosense Global acquires exclusive rights to develop and commercialize IFNalpha Kinoid for the treatment of Lupus in China and confirms their support and financial contribution to the Chinese part of a global Phase III program, when it starts within a global licensing agreement.

«The Phase IIb results have shown the relevance of Neovacs' unique technology of active immunotherapy in humans. The efficacy demonstrated motivates us to push ahead with our cooperation. Within trials conducted in lupus, LLDAS measures the patient disease activity state with the reduction of steroid use as one of the key components. This is emerging as a clinically meaningful outcome measure and is gaining increased support as a study endpoint from opinion leaders and clinicians in China and globally," explains Andy Li, PhD, CEO of Biosense Global, by adding: "Achieving statistically significance with this endpoint is a very important milestone for the project. We look forward to working with Neovacs and its other partners to further study the drug in the next stage of clinical development."

«China is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world, where about 1 million people are suffering from this disease^[3]. The pursuit of our cooperation with Biosense Global is a very positive development, and confirms the worldwide therapeutic potential of our lead product IFN Kinoid," concludes Miguel Sieler, CEO of Neovacs.

According to the terms of the agreement Neovacs will receive a milestone payment following the exercising of the option. The company continues to pursue its discussions with other potential partners for a global licensing agreement.