Media release detail page

Polyphor and Gilead establish R&D macrocycle drug discovery collaboration

Allschwil, Switzerland, August 10, 2016. Polyphor Ltd announced today the signing of a collaboration and license agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc., Foster City, California, USA. The collaboration aims to identify and optimize macrocycle molecules addressing challenging biological targets selected by Gilead. Under the terms of the Agreement, Polyphor will receive an upfront payment and research funding, and will be eligible for further milestone payments. In the initial phase of the collaboration Polyphor will apply its entire macrocycle platform consisting of non-peptidic macrocyles (MacroFinder^(R)), peptidic macrocycles (PEMfinder^(R), protein-epitope mimetics) and phage display of PEM-like molecules (PEMphage^(R)) to generate tractable macrocycle hit families for further optimization.

Dr. Daniel Obrecht, Chief Scientific Officer of Polyphor said "The collaboration with Gilead is another important milestone for Polyphor. Applying Polyphor's proprietary macrocycle platform in joint drug discovery projects maximizes the value of the technology for our partners and us. Partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies are a key element of our strategy to realize the full potential of this novel drug class, while focusing our own R&D activities on novel antibiotics and rare respiratory diseases."

About Polyphor:
Polyphor is a Swiss Pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of macrocycle drugs that address high unmet medical needs. Macrocycles represent a new drug class, complementary to both traditional small molecules and large biopharmaceuticals. Polyphor leverages its unique and proprietary technology platform to develop its own product portfolio and to pursue licensing and collaboration opportunities with industry partners. The company's lead drug candidates include:

- POL7080, (murepavadin, Phase II), a highly specific antibiotic with a novel mode of action to treat Pseudomonas infections

- POL6326, (balixafortide, Phase Ib), a CXCR4 antagonist, for combination treatments in oncology and other indications

- and POL6014 (Phase Ib), an inhaled inhibitor of neutrophil elastase for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and other lung diseases

Polyphor is a privately held company with about 100 employees, headquartered in Allschwil, near Basel. It has collaborative partnerships with Boehringer Ingelheim, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, Taisho and Novartis.