Eloxx Pharmacueticals Receives A US$5 Million Investment from Quark Venture and GF Securities to Advance A Novel Disease-Modifying Therapy Targeting Genetic Diseases

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 8, 2017) - Today, Quark Venture Inc. and GF Securities announced a $US5 million investment Eloxx Pharmaceuticals through their Global Health Science Fund. This investment is part of a US$24 million financing Series C round led by Pontifax, a leading VC in the Life Sciences arena and co-founder of Eloxx Pharmaceuticals. Headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, Eloxx Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage company developing first in class therapeutics to treat genetic diseases caused by non-sense mutations.

"This investment expands our global portfolio. We are pleased to join Pontifax and other investors in this round of financing. Eloxx's lead compound, ELX-02, provides a unique opportunity to potentially be the first disease-modifying therapy to treat a set of devastating diseases, for which there are no effective treatments. We have full confidence in the company's clinical strategy and in the management team, led by CEO and co-founder Dr. Silvia Noiman," said Karimah Es Sabar, Chief Executive Office of Quark Venture and Director of GHS Fund."

Eloxx's lead compound, ELX-02 has shown pharmacological, pharmacodynamic and physiological effects in several animal models of genetic disease cause by nonsense mutations including Cystic Fibrosis, Cystinosis, Duchene Muscular Dystrophy and Rett Syndrome.

"We welcome Quark Venture as an investor in this round of financing. Their team bring a deep level of Life Sciences expertise. This financing enables us to initiate multiple clinical studies for EL-02. We are optimistic about advancing our lead clinical programs in cystic fibrosis and cystinosis patients carrying nonsense mutations," said Dr. Silvia Noiman, Chief Executive Officer of Eloxx Pharmaceuticals.

Approximately 3 - 4 percent of newborns manifest a genetic disease or major birth defect, and about 12 percent of all mutations reported are caused by nonsense mutation. Nonsense mutations introduce premature stop codons in the reading frame of a gene. When the mutated sequence is translated into a problem, the resulting protein is incomplete and shorter than normal. Consequently, most nonsense mutations result in nonfunctional proteins. Nonsense mutations account for some of the most severe phenotypes in genetic diseases and often have devastating effects in critical target organs. ELX-02 is a translation read-through inducing drug. Read-through therapy is a treatment strategy for genetic diseases caused by nonsense mutations to increase translation and restoring activity of the mutated proteins.