Hansoh Pharma and OliX Pharmaceuticals Enter into Licensing and Collaboration Agreement to Develop and Commercialize siRNA Therapeutics in Greater China

• Companies to focus on cardiovascular, metabolic, and other indications
• OliX will receive initial upfront payment of $6.5 million with up to $450 million plus royalties

SHANGHAI, China and SUWON, Republic of Korea, Oct. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co, Ltd (SEHK: 3692), a leading R&D driven biopharmaceutical company in China and , Inc. (KOSDAQ: 226950), a leading developer of RNAi therapeutics, today announced a licensing and collaboration agreement to discover, develop and commercialize siRNA therapeutics in key targeted indications in Greater China, which includes mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. As part of the collaboration agreement, the companies will leverage OliX Pharmaceuticals’ GalNAc-asiRNA platform to address various liver-based targets that are implicated in cardiovascular, metabolic, and other indications, utilizing Hansoh’s strong R&D, manufacturing and commercialization capabilities in Greater China.

Through this agreement, OliX will use its GalNAc-asiRNA platform technology to discover lead compounds and secure development candidates for targets in cardiovascular, metabolic, and other diseases associated with the liver. Hansoh will have exclusive commercial rights to these therapeutics in Greater China and OliX will have rights in the rest of the world. OliX will receive an initial upfront payment of $6.5 million with up to $450 million plus royalties based on key milestones.

“We are thrilled to partner with OliX Pharmaceuticals, a leader in siRNA development with an established clinical stage portfolio, and look forward to utilizing their technology platform in our development process,” said Eliza Sun, Executive Director of the Board of Hansoh Pharma. “OliX Pharmaceuticals’ innovative GalNAc-asiRNA platform allows us to consider unique gene silencing technology in addressing a broad range of unmet medical needs here in Greater China.”

“We are extremely excited to partner with one of the largest biopharmaceutical entities in Greater China,” said Dong Ki Lee, Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of OliX Pharmaceuticals. “This collaboration marks our first platform deal with a large pharmaceutical company and we believe it is only the beginning for our unique technology, which has already shown great promise in a number of indications, including our exciting preclinical data recently on our NASH compound. We look forward to leveraging the full potential of our proprietary GalNAc-asiRNA platform using Hansoh’s proven clinical development and commercialization process, as well as our research to date to accelerate the development of critical drugs.”

Asymmetric small interfering RNA

Asymmetric small interfering RNA (asiRNA) represents the next generation of RNAi therapeutics through efficient gene regulation. Compared to existing siRNA therapeutics, OliX Pharmaceuticals’ asiRNA shows comparable gene silencing and significantly reduced siRNA-mediated side effects such as off-target gene silencing and immune stimulation.

About Hansoh Pharma Group

Hansoh Pharma (3692.HK), one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in Greater China and in Asia, is committed to discovering and developing life-changing medicines to help patients conquer serious diseases and disorders. Hansoh Pharma is supported by over 12,000 dedicated employees in China and the United States.

Founded in 1995, Hansoh has fully integrated research and development, manufacturing, and commercial capabilities, supporting leading positions across a broad range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases, among others. With the support of over 1,600 highly skilled R&D professionals, Hansoh has successfully developed multiple internally discovered drug candidates into NMPA-approved innovative medicines, including aumolertinib (阿美乐®), a third-generation EGFR inhibitor for the treatment of NSCLC with EGFR mutations; flumatinib (昕福®), a second-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor for frontline treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); PEG-loxenatide (孚来 美®), the first once-weekly long-acting GLP-1 analogue discovered and developed in China for the treatment of diabetes; morinidazole (迈灵达®), a third-generation nitroimidazole antibiotic; and tenofovir amibufenamide (恒 沐®), the first second-generation oral anti-HBV drug developed in China.

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About OliX Pharmaceuticals

OliX Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics against a variety of disorders by down-regulating expression of disease-causing genes based on its own proprietary RNAi technology. The Company’s core RNAi platform, asymmetric siRNA (asiRNA), is a unique gene silencing technology based on RNA interference (RNAi), which is considered the most efficient gene silencing technology. Utilizing this proprietary asiRNA technology, OliX has developed cell penetrating asiRNA (cp-asiRNA), a therapeutic RNAi platform to effectively target diseases locally, such as hypertrophic scarring, dry and wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), subretinal fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and neuropathic pain. OliX has also developed another therapeutic RNAi platform, GalNAc-asiRNA, to target a variety of liver diseases.

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OliX Media Contact:

Jon Yu

ICR Westwicke PR

Phone: +1.475.395.5375