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Spexis announces the appointment of Gonçalo Bernardes, Ph.D., as acting Head of Chemical Biology

Allschwil, Switzerland, September 28, 2023

Spexis AG (SIX: SPEX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases and oncology, today announced that the company has appointed Gonçalo Bernardes, PhD, as acting Head of Chemical Biology. Dr. Bernardes is a leader in the fields of chemistry and oncology and currently a Full Professor at the University of Cambridge. He also leads a satellite lab at the Insituto Medicina Molecular in Lisbon. Multiple discoveries made in his lab have been translated into leading biopharmaceutical companies.

“We are thrilled to welcome Gonçalo to Spexis, where we look forward to leveraging his expertise in chemical biology to advance the development of our novel macrocycle pipeline,” said Jeff Wager, M.D., Chairman & CEO of Spexis. “Spexis remains committed to strengthening our leading position in macrocycle-based therapeutics with our two distinct and well characterized libraries, PEMFinder and MACROFinder. Dr. Bernardes will be instrumental in driving value out of our macrocycle platform to produce novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. In the coming weeks and months, we will reveal what some of these initiatives are, which are already underway.”

Dr. Bernardes is a Full Professor of Chemical Biology and a Fellow of Trinity Hall College, Cambridge. He has co-founded companies using technology developed in his lab and has been awarded three European Research Council grants, as well as awards from the Royal Society of Chemistry, International Chemical Biology Society, European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry and The Blavatnik Family Foundation. Dr. Bernardes also serves as a Senior Fellow at Flagship Pioneering, the largest global venture incubator. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Oxford, U.K., and his postdoctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich.

“I am excited to join Spexis and their mission to combat diseases that require innovative thinking supported by strong chemical and biological principles,” said Gonçalo Bernardes, Ph.D. “I believe my background in research and entrepreneurship will complement the pioneering work being done at the company, and I am eager to work closely with the team to further develop novel macrocycle-based therapeutics through the clinic and to patients in need.”

Spexis’ innovation and dedication to its platform reflects the growing potential of macrocycles to target unique molecular structures and their compatibility with a variety of other technologies. Spexis possesses two distinct, highly diverse, and well characterized macrocycle libraries including PEMFinder, comprised of peptidomimetic macrocycles, and MACROFinder, comprised of small molecule macrocycles. Both of these libraries were developed over the course of more than 20 years of discovery and drug development efforts both at Spexis and via Spexis’ predecessor, Polyphor, Ltd.  Macrocycles occupy a unique chemical space, with a molecular weight between small molecules and biologics. Spexis continues to leverage its macrocycle platform into new therapeutic modalities and the company expects to provide further details on their progress later this year.

About Spexis

Spexis (SIX: SPEX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Allschwil, Switzerland, focused on macrocycle therapeutics for rare diseases and oncology. For further information please visit: www.spexisbio.com.

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Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current assumptions and forecasts of Spexis management. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could lead to material differences between the forward-looking statements made here and the actual development, in particular Spexis’ results, financial situation, and performance. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only of the date of this communication. Spexis disclaims any intention or obligation to update and revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.