Oxurion Avoids Bankruptcy, Announces Board and Management Changes and Enters into Binding Letter of Intent with its Main Creditor Atlas - Seite 2

Both SYFOVRE and IZERVAY target a single pathway, the complement pathway. However, the causes of GA are multifactorial and Oxurion has developed a disease specific target discovery platform enabling it to study the disease from different angles in a rapid and capital efficient manner. Using the platform, Oxurion has already identified potential novel pathways involved in the pathogenesis of AMD/GA disease that have the potential to provide better treatment options for GA patients that are not focused solely on the complement pathway.

The next step for Oxurion is to seek to validate these targets in various in vitro and in vivo models that the preclinical team has developed over the past years and that are representative of the disease characteristics of AMD/GA (patient in a dish). Oxurion’s approach potentially differentiates it from other methods through its unbiased target discovery approach and its multitargeting drug format, which the Company considers to be necessary to improve efficacy compared to the standard of care for such a multi-factorial disease.

The Company expects that, if successful, its lead generation work could allow Composition of Matter patents to be filed in 2024, which would be the next value inflection point, after which the Company estimates it would take around two years and a further investment of approximately EUR 20 million in working capital before initiating a proof of concept study.

Had the Company not been capital constrained, it would have undertaken these efforts previously. Atlas has now committed to fund the Company’s running costs including the GA program at least through 2024, provided the modified liquidity and market capitalization conditions set forth below are met, and to consider means of further monetizing both the Oncurious and Oxurion assets (potentially including THR-687 and THR-149), and in parallel to seek future corporate transactions or business combinations.

To achieve these aims, the Company has agreed with the Chief Development Officer (CDO), the newly promoted Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), and the entire preclinical team to stay at the Company. The team consists of six world-class scientists with combined experience in researching retina diseases of more than 75 years, including 4 PhD’s/MDs. The team is led by Dr. Andy De Deene, CDO, who is a medical doctor with more than 15 years of retina drug development experience and led the development of Jetrea which was approved in over 50 countries, and Philippe Barbeaux, CSO, a PhD with more than 15 years of preclinical experience in retina-related diseases. Andy and Philippe will both be members of the Executive Committee, together with the new acting CEO/CFO, Pascal Ghoson, who is a former M&A specialist at Rothschild bank and CFO of various listed companies on Euronext.