Peak Bio, Inc. Announces its Application to Uplist to the OTCQB Venture Market

Pleasanton, CA, Aug. 29, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Peak Bio, Inc. ("Peak Bio" or the "Company") (OTC PK: PKBO), is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing the next-generation of innovative therapeutics that aim to improve and address significant unmet medical need for patients with inflammatory, rare-specialty diseases and cancer.   The Company today is pleased to announce it has begun the application process for moving off the OTC Pink Sheets and uplisting to the OTCQB® Venture Marketplace. The application process will not guarantee acceptance of the Company's submission by OTCMARKETS from the PINKS to OTCQB.

The Company believes that the move to the OTCQB will provide enhanced investor benefits including higher reporting standards, greater access to analyst coverage and news services, and more comprehensive compliance requirements. The OTCQB is considered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an "established public market" for determining the public market price when registering securities for resale with the SEC. The OTC Pink is not considered as such and most broker dealers will not trade or recommend OTC Pink stocks. Because the OTCQB dramatically increases transparency, reporting standards, management certification and compliance requirements, most broker dealers trade stocks on the OTCQB. Historically, companies that have made the move up to the OTCQB® tier have experienced increased investor awareness, greater liquidity and visibility of their common stock.

Stephen LaMond, PharmD, MBA, Peak Bio, Inc. Interim CEO and COO, commented, "We are pleased to announce these next steps for Peak Bio in the uplisting process.  We believe that uplisting to OTCQB will increase opportunities to greater expose our scientific and investor community to our continued mission to bring advanced cancer and rare/orphan disease therapies to market while at the same time increasing greater liquidity and visibility for our common stock and gives the company additional optionality on OTCQB or other exchanges in the future.”

For More Information See: OTCQB Eligibility Requirements

About OTC Markets Group and the OTCQB® Venture Market

OTC Markets Group Inc. operates financial markets for 11,000 U.S. and global securities. We organize these securities into three markets based on the quality and timeliness of information a company provides to investors: the OTCQX® Best Market, the OTCQB® Venture Market, and the Pink® Open Market. We utilize the power of technology to make markets more efficient, empowering a broad range of companies to improve their investor experience - all without the cost, complexity and resource drain common with an exchange listing. The OTCQB® Venture Market is for entrepreneurial and development stage U.S. and international companies. To be eligible, companies must be current in their reporting, have a minimum bid price of $0.01, may not be in bankruptcy and must undergo an annual verification and management certification process. These standards provide a strong baseline of transparency to improve the information and trading experience for investors.

About Peak Bio, Inc.

Peak Bio, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing the next-generation of therapeutics to treat oncology and inflammatory orphan/rare diseases.

Peak Bio’s lead product candidate, PHP-303, is a 5th generation, small molecule, neutrophil elastase inhibitor currently awaiting initiation of a Phase II clinical study in the genetic orphan disease called Alpha1 anti-trypsin deficiency disorder (AATD). Peak Bio has successfully completed two Phase 1 clinical studies in human subjects: a single ascending dose trial (SAD) and a multiple ascending dose trial (MAD). The SAD and MAD PHP-303 clinical studies demonstrated a favorable safety profile, and a dose was established for Peak Bio’s upcoming clinical trials.

Peak Bio’s cancer platform consists of novel payloads/toxins in conjunction an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform that seeks to address a growing unmet need in cancer care.  Peak Bio’s current ADC approach has a dual mechanism of action that unites conventional and direct targeting of cancer cells with toxins while also engaging the immune system with the added potential to enhance cancer cell killing.  The Peak Bio payload stimulates the immune system and leaves behind immune memory cells that continue to kill cancer cells following the initial therapeutic intervention even in the absence of further ADC treatments. The potential for immune reengagement when the cancer reoccurs could be an exciting and important advancement in cancer care with this dual mechanistic approach to cancer therapeutics.  Peak Bio’s lead payload appears to be a poor substrate for multi-drug resistance (MDR) transporters which is a growing concern in the ADC field.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies, and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to us and on assumptions we have made. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by terms such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “contemplates,” “continues,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “on track,” “opportunity,” “plans,” “poised for,” “possible,” “potential,” “predicts,” “projects,” “promises to be,” “seeks,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms.

Although we believe that our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies, and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations, or strategies will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control. Such risks and uncertainties for our company include, but are not limited to: needs for additional capital to fund our operations, our ability to continue as a going concern; uncertainties of cash flows and inability to meet working capital needs; preclinical testing or early clinical results may not be predictive of the results or success of ongoing or later preclinical or clinical studies; identification, development and testing of the company’s product candidates and new platforms may take longer and/or cost more than planned, or our clinical studies may not be initiated or completed on schedule; risks inherent in drug development in general; difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials; failure to realize any value of our product candidates developed and being developed in light of inherent risks and difficulties involved in successfully bringing product candidates to market; inability to develop new product candidates and support existing product candidates; the approval by the FDA and EMA and any other similar foreign regulatory authorities of other competing or superior products brought to market; risks resulting from unforeseen side effects; risks associated with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; inability to obtain, maintain and enforce patents and other intellectual property rights or the unexpected costs associated with such enforcement or litigation; inability to obtain and maintain commercial manufacturing arrangements with third party manufacturers or establish commercial scale manufacturing capabilities; the inability to timely source adequate supply of our active pharmaceutical ingredients from third party manufacturers on whom the company depends; unexpected cost increases and pricing pressures and risks and other risk factors detailed in our public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recently filed Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the SEC and our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. Except as otherwise noted, these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after this press release. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Contact:

Stephen LaMond, PharmD, MBA

Interim CEO and COO

Peak Bio, Inc.