ExonHit Announces The Inclusion Of Proprietary Lead Compounds Into Allergan Collaboration

ExonHit Therapeutics

Paris, France, February 23, 2010 - ExonHit Therapeutics (Alternext: ALEHT) today announced the inclusion of proprietary lead compounds, which were derived from one of its internal medicinal chemistry programs, into its productive and long-running strategic collaboration with Allergan. "We are very fortunate to have a strong and productive partnership with Allergan, which allows both companies to take advantage of opportunities to shorten development timelines and rapidly move to create new shared products and value," stated Loïc Maurel M.D., President of ExonHit Therapeutics' Management Board.

ExonHit will continue to lead the medicinal chemistry effort related to this target. The compounds are active against a new enzyme target potentially useful for therapeutic development in ophthalmology and neurodegenerative indications. Milestone and royalty terms of the existing collaboration agreement will apply to these compounds and the products derived from them. About the ExonHit/Allergan collaboration ExonHit has a collaboration with Allergan dedicated to the identification, development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of ophthalmology, pain and neurodegenerative diseases.

In January 2009, the collaboration which has been ongoing since December 2002, was extended through December 2011 and its scope expanded to investigate a variety of ocular disease related models in order to discover novel epitope targets for the development of therapeutic antibodies.

EHT/AGN 0001, the lead compound from the most advanced program of the collaboration, successfully completed Phase I safety studies in 2009. EHT/AGN 0002 and other compounds are in preclinical testing.

About ExonHit Therapeutics

ExonHit Therapeutics (Alternext: ALEHT) is a fast-emerging healthcare player active in both therapeutics and diagnostics. The company is applying its proprietary technology, based on the analysis of alternative RNA splicing, to develop innovative molecular diagnostic tests and therapeutics for neurodegenerative and cancer indications. ExonHit has a balanced investment strategy with inhouse development programs and strategic collaborations, in particular with bioMérieux and Allergan).

ExonHit is headquartered in Paris, France and has U.S. offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The company is listed on Alternext of NYSE Euronext Paris. For more information, please visit http://www.exonhit.com.

Disclaimer

This press release contains elements that are not historical facts including, without limitation, certain statements on future expectations and other forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated.

In addition, ExonHit Therapeutics, its shareholders, and its affiliates, directors, officers, advisors and employees have not verified the accuracy of, and make no representations or warranties in relation to, statistical data or predictions contained in this press release that were taken or derived from third party sources or industry publications, and such statistical data and predictions are used in this press release for information purposes only.

Lastly, this press release may be drafted in the French and English languages. In an event of differences between the texts, the French language version shall prevail.

Contacts

ExonHit Therapeutics
Corinne Hoff
+33 1 58 05 47 04
[email protected]
Alize RP
Caroline Carmagnol
+ 33 6 64 18 99 59
[email protected]

  • <<
  • >>

Comments