e-therapeutics PLC

COVID-19 update: experimental testing initiated with WuXi AppTec

Oxford, UK, 18 May 2020 - e-therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX.L, "e-therapeutics" or "the Company") today announces the initiation of experimental testing on the first set of compounds for the treatment of COVID-19 identified using its proprietary Network-driven Drug Discovery (NDD) platform. The Company will work with WuXi AppTec to perform the studies.

In line with our previous statement on the 23^rd March 2020, we continue to pursue an NDD approach to identify approved and known drugs, both alone and as synergistic combinations, that could be rapidly repositioned for the treatment of COVID-19. Importantly, we are focusing on therapeutic strategies that target host systems, therefore minimising the risk of resistance and potentially being effective for the treatment of other viral conditions.

An initial compound set, which we believe has the potential to address both viral replication and the associated excessive immune response, will be tested by WuXi AppTec utilising its relevant cell-based assays.

Ali Mortazavi, Executive Chairman of e-therapeutics, commented: "I am pleased to report progress on our contribution to the fight against COVID-19, advancing from the computational stage of our project into experimental work. We are pursuing a multipronged effort for this project and will continue to provide updates as further data becomes available."

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 About e-therapeutics

e-therapeutics is an Oxford, UK-based company with a unique and powerful computer-based approach to drug discovery, founded on our industry-leading expertise in network biology.

We have created two proprietary, unique and productive technologies. The first is Network-driven Drug Discovery ("NDD"), which is based on cutting-edge network science, statistics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. NDD allows the more efficient discovery of new and better drugs and has been validated in multiple and diverse areas of biology.

The second is Genome Associated Interaction Networks ("GAINs"). GAINs is a revolutionary and entirely novel approach to functional genomics, based on the same validated network biology and analytics expertise that underpins our NDD technologies. GAINs analyses human genetic data to provide a deep and valuable understanding of the mechanisms that cause disease. GAINs has the potential to uncover unrecognised disease processes and pathways and can enable the discovery of novel drugs, diagnostics and biomarkers in a way not previously possible from population genomics data, such as genome-wide association studies ("GWAS").

We have deployed our highly productive drug discovery platform technologies to develop our own IP-protected, pre-clinical drug discovery programmes that are available to partners seeking to acquire or in-license novel and differentiated assets.

We have partnerships with Novo Nordisk in Type-2 diabetes and a US-based, top 5 pharmaceutical company in neurodegeneration. We are working on different types of collaborative partnerships with biotech, pharma and other technology companies to create sustainable mutual value.