Decoy Therapeutics Announces Breakthrough In Vitro Activity Against Ebola Zaire, Expanding D-MAV™ Platform into High Consequence Global Health Threats

Lead D-MAV demonstrates cross-viral family fusion inhibition, validating the
platform; opens a new program in filovirus pandemic preparedness

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Decoy Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: DCOY), a biotechnology company developing Designable Multi-Antivirals (D-MAVs™), today announced that one of its D-MAV candidates demonstrates in vitro activity against wild-type Ebola Zaire virus in testing at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. Building on the result, Decoy has opened an exploratory program to design D-MAVs against filoviruses, including Ebola and Marburg.

The candidate was engineered on Decoy's IMP³ACT™ platform to block coronavirus entry, where it has shown nanomolar to picomolar activity across known coronavirus strains. Its activity against Ebola Zaire, a filovirus responsible for 17 of the last 20 Ebola outbreaks, demonstrates the value of the platform's founding premise that one drug engineered against common viral machinery can address many viruses and serve many people.

"Viruses don't operate in a one-drug, one-virus silo, and our industry's legacy reactive model has left the world playing catch-up against viral threats," said Rick Pierce, Chief Executive Officer of Decoy Therapeutics. "Our respiratory program remains our priority and our path toward the clinic. What this result changes is our sense of how much more the platform can reach."

In the same testing, the candidate also showed in vitro activity against Lassa fever virus, an arenavirus. Filovirus diseases, including Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa fever are among the conditions eligible for the FDA's tropical disease priority review voucher program, which supports development of treatments for diseases that lack sufficient commercial markets.

"We engineered this D-MAV against a mechanism coronaviruses depend on, and it inhibited filovirus infection because they rely on the same class I fusion machinery," said Dr. Barbara Hibner, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Decoy Therapeutics. "This activity validates the strategy behind our broad-based antiviral platform, and demonstrates the breadth of D-MAV effectiveness. We are now designing new D-MAVs for multi-viral inhibition of filoviruses and arenaviruses, the development of which we believe our platform can accelerate."

Addressing commercial markets and pandemic preparedness through the same work is how the platform is meant to operate, and this result shows the design can be effective. An ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, caused by Bundibugyo virus and lacking any approved vaccine or treatment, underscores why that reach matters.

About Decoy Therapeutics

Decoy Therapeutics is a biotechnology company pioneering Designable Multi-Antivirals (D-MAVs), a new category of antivirals engineered to target shared viral mechanisms, enabling a single, adaptable drug to work across many viruses. Built on the proprietary IMP³ACT platform, which combines AI-enabled design and rapid synthesis, Decoy develops peptide antivirals designed to move faster toward the clinic and expand what is possible in viral prevention and treatment. The company's lead candidates target many respiratory viruses, addressing the health and societal burden of viral disease.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding Decoy, including expected achievement of milestones for its lead asset and future prospects of Decoy. These statements may discuss goals, intentions and expectations as to future plans, trends, events, results of operations or financial condition, or otherwise, based on current beliefs of the management of Decoy, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. Forward-looking statements generally include statements that are predictive in nature and depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and include words such as "may," "will," "can," "should," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "likely," "believe," "estimate," "project," "intend," and other similar expressions. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors, including, without limitation: the risk that the Company will not obtain sufficient financing to execute on their business plans and risks related to Decoy's products and development plans, including unanticipated issues with any IND application process and the potential of the IMP³ACT^™ platform. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by the Company in its reports filed with the SEC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, as revised or supplemented by its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents filed with the SEC. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, Decoy's actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected.

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SOURCE Decoy Therapeutics, Inc