OliX Pharmaceuticals Enters Agreement with Pharmaron to Advance Non-clinical Toxicology Testing for Hepatitis B Candidate OLX703A

SUWON, Republic of Korea, Oct. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OliX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (KOSDAQ: 226950), a leading developer of RNAi therapeutics, today announced that the Company has selected Pharmaron, a leading contract research organization based in China, to conduct non-clinical toxicity studies to evaluate the safety of OLX703A, OliX’s investigational therapeutic for hepatitis B (HBV).

OLX703A utilizes GalNAc-asiRNA technology and is designed to inhibit all HBV transcripts and proteins, including hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). It allows suppression of HBV replication and has been confirmed to be functional against all major HBV genotypes and subtypes.

Last June, OliX conducted a non-clinical pharmacology study of OLX703A and observed an approximately 100-fold reduction of key markers in serum associated with HBV, including s-antigen, e-antigen, and HBV DNA. According to the Company, these key results are comparable to the published preclinical data of competing therapeutics. Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production of OLX703A for preclinical and clinical studies is currently underway with LGC BioSearch Technologies.

“We are pleased to work with Pharmaron to advance non-clinical toxicity studies for OLX703A given their extensive research and development experience in China and the broader Asia region,” said Dong Ki Lee, Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of OliX Pharmaceuticals. “We are encouraged by our progress in developing therapeutics for liver disease based on our GalNAc-asiRNA technology and look forward to advancing OLX703A into clinical trials as quickly as possible.”

About OliX Pharmaceuticals

OliX Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics against a variety of disorders by down-regulating expression of disease-causing genes based on its own proprietary RNAi technology. The Company’s core RNAi platform, asymmetric siRNA (asiRNA), is a unique gene silencing technology based on RNA interference (RNAi), which is considered the most efficient gene silencing technology. Utilizing this proprietary asiRNA technology, OliX has developed cell penetrating asiRNA (cp-asiRNA), a therapeutic RNAi platform to effectively target diseases locally, such as hypertrophic scarring, dry and wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), subretinal fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and neuropathic pain. OliX has also developed another therapeutic RNAi platform, GalNAc-asiRNA, to target a variety of liver diseases.

Learn more: https://www.olixpharma.com/eng/

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