Statera Biopharma Advances Next-Gen Proprietary Compositions Based on STAT-200 Platform

In collaboration with MolSoft, ImQuest, a Statera company, is investigating new, optimized compositions incorporating desirable elements of STAT-200

FORT COLLINS, Colo., March 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Statera Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: STAB), a leading biopharmaceutical company creating next-generation immune therapies that focus on immune restoration and homeostasis, today announced advancement of its next-gen research activities that builds upon the immune modulation activity of STAT-200 on Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs) to improve drug characteristics and clinical benefit beyond opioid receptors.

The research is based on the discovery that STAT-200, which originally was designed to antagonize opioid receptors, modulates multiple signaling pathways through receptors known as TLRs. These receptors act as master controllers of inflammation. Statera’s discovery platform identifies novel compositions that build upon STAT-200 by modulating multiple cellular targets, versus one, to restore cellular homeostasis. These findings have led to the selection of promising new compositions with the potential to treat a range of inflammatory-related diseases.

“The platform could not have existed before the discovery of the effect of STAT-200 on TLRs,” said Stephen Wilson, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer at Statera. “With this knowledge, we have an immense opportunity to improve drug characteristics and clinical benefit because we aren’t limited to optimizations based on opioid receptors alone.” 

The platform rapidly screened billions of potential compositions, resulting in hundreds of promising targets. The top ten compositions were highly compelling, and three of them are currently being synthesized for biologic validation. Statera partnered with MolSoft, a leader in computational chemistry and bioinformatics software, to conduct the computational discovery through its proprietary Rapid Isostere Discovery Engine (RIDE) technology.

“A paradigm shift is daring, but these initial findings have proven that Statera’s approach can identify actionable compositions that would be missed using traditional constraints,” said Dr. Andrew Orry, MolSoft’s Senior Research Scientist.

Last year, Statera acquired ImQuest Life Sciences, Inc., which evaluates biologics and pharmaceuticals in preclinical development. ImQuest plans to begin functional validation of key compositions and expects to accumulate datasets to select the best leads for animal safety/efficacy testing in multiple indications.

About Statera Biopharma
Statera Biopharma, Inc. (formerly Cytocom, Inc.) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies targeting autoimmune, neutropenia/anemia, emerging viruses and cancers based on a proprietary platform designed to rebalance the body’s immune system and restore homeostasis. Statera has a large platform of toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists with TLR4 and TLR9 antagonists, and the TLR5 agonists, Entolimod and GP532. TLRs are a class of protein that plays a key role in the innate immune system. Statera is developing therapies designed to directly elicit within patients a robust and durable response of antigen-specific killer T-cells and antibodies, thereby activating essential immune defenses against autoimmune, inflammatory, infectious diseases, and cancers. Statera has clinical or preclinical programs for Crohn’s disease (STAT-201), hematology (Entolimod), pancreatic cancer (STAT-401) and COVID-19 (STAT-205) in addition to potential expansion into fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis. To learn more about Statera, please visit www.staterabiopharma.com.

Forward Looking Statements
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Contacts:

Statera Biopharma
Nichol Ochsner
Executive V.P. Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
(732) 754-2545
[email protected]
    
FINN Partners
Glenn Silver (Media)
(973) 818-8198
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FINN Partners
David Carey (IR)
(212) 867-1768
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