Phagelux Staph Lysin Out-licensing Announcement

MONTREAL, and SHANGHAI, WUHAN, China, Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Phagelux, Inc. is proud to announce the out-licensing of its staphylococcus lysin to Shanghai Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. (hereinafter referred to as "SPH", 601607.SH; 2607.HK) for in vivo applications.  This licensing agreement is limited to the greater China market.

According to Bryan Li, EVP, Medical, for Phagelux, "a lysin is phage encoded peptidoglycan hydrolase that kills bacteria and it has several advantages as compared to a traditional chemical antibiotic: (1) it works much faster; (2) it can easily penetrate biofilm; (3) it is very targeted against a specific pathogen and does not harm the rest of the biome; (4) it does not cause bacterial resistance; and (5) it often has a synergistic effect when combined with an antibiotic." 

Mark Engel, Chairman of Phagelux, added "We are very happy to be working with SPH through its subsidiary Shanghai Pharmaceutical New Asia Medicine Co., Ltd.  I think most importantly, SPH is very experienced in the commercialization of antibiotics in China.  They have strong and knowledgeable scientific, regulatory, sales and marketing teams.  Going forward SPH will be solely responsible in China for late stage development, clinical trials, registration and commercialization of this staphylococcus lysin.  The deal terms are also favorable from a commercial perspective with a $2.5 million USD up-front payment, $48 million USD milestones, and royalties on gross sales in the low to middle teens."

Mr. Engel further added "We expect to be announcing a number of additional licensing deals within the next year. Our LysiThru^TM system utilizes a methodology suite that combines bioinformatic analysis, and high throughput construction, engineering, and screening of phage lysins. This platform facilitates the rapid development of superior lysins, with commercial potential, at a fraction of the time and cost as compared to competitors."

Jianhao Tang, General Manager of Shanghai SPH New Asia Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of SPH, added "We are delighted to be working with Phagelux to develop and commercialize this staphylococcus lysin for China.  Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) and other staphylococcus infections are a major health issue in China.  We believe that this drug will provide doctors with a new medicine to help treat patients with MRSA and difficult to treat staphylococcus infections."

About Phagelux: Phagelux is a clinical stage company creating biological antibacterials.  The company is developing novel skin products and also novel in vivo products, the latter of which will be co-developed with partners. The company has research and development labs in China and Montreal, Canada.  In addition, the Montreal facility has scale-up GMP manufacturing. 

About SPH:  SPH is a vertically-integrated and diversified pharmaceutical group. The company has dual listings on the stock exchanges in Shanghai (601607) and Hong Kong (02067) respectively. The company provides leading healthcare services in: Research & Development, Manufacturing, Distribution and Retail.  In 2020, SPH reported revenues of US$27.8bn, and it ranked 473rd on the Global Fortune 500 list for the first time, making the company one of the country's major forces in the industry. SPH is one of the few listed pharmaceutical companies with a leading position in both manufacturing and distribution in China. It is included in the constituent stocks of the SSE 180, CSI 300 indices and MSCI.

SOURCE Phagelux, Inc.

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