C4X Discovery Holdings plc

Business Update

Revenue generating progress for partnered programmes with continued momentum across
drug discovery portfolio

2 August 2022 - C4X Discovery Holdings plc (AIM: C4XD), a pioneering Drug Discovery company, today provides a business update on the continued progression across its Drug Discovery portfolio:

·    In July, C4XD received its first milestone payment of €3 million from Sanofi under the out-licensing agreement for its IL-17A inhibitor programme entered into in April 2021. Under the terms of the deal, C4XD is entitled to receive up to a total of €414 million in upfront, pre-clinical, development, regulatory and commercialisation milestone payments plus royalties on future net sales.

·    Indivior has completed preparations for its Phase 1 multiple ascending dose (MAD) study with C4X_3256 (INDV-2000), C4XD's oral Orexin-1 receptor antagonist for the treatment of addiction. The study is expected to start in September 2022.

·    C4XD is in advanced stage commercial discussions for its NRF2 activator programme for inflammatory diseases with a deal anticipated in H2 2022.

·    MALT-1 inhibitor programme for haematological and solid tumours has compounds that match the leading clinical candidate in terms of in vitro and in vivo profile and is now moving towards identifying a Best-In-Class shortlist of compounds.

·    a4b7 integrin programme has compounds in the lead series significantly more potent in a human whole blood assay than representative compounds from the leading clinical programme. Optimisation of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles continues.

·    Six early-stage programmes (three oncology, three inflammation-immunology) are appropriately resourced in the Hit Identification phase, with a view to transitioning two into the next phase within the next quarter.

·    Cathy Tralau-Stewart has stepped down by mutual consent from her position as Chief Scientific Officer to pursue other interests. We thank Cathy for her contribution while at C4XD and wish her well in her future endeavours. Our existing and planned programmes continue to progress well under the leadership of our SVPs Drug Discovery, Drs. Clare Murray and Nick Ray.

·    In Q1 2022, C4XD initiated a collaboration with Acellera to apply insights from Acellera's machine learning and molecular simulation platforms to an oncology programme in C4XD's portfolio. C4XD continues to evaluate additional technology platforms, including AI and machine learning platforms, with the potential to enhance its Drug Discovery engine and accelerate programmes to a partnerable stage.

Dr Clive Dix, CEO of C4XD, said: "Our partnered portfolio has continued to deliver over the past few months, most notably with our first milestone payment from Sanofi for our oral IL-17a inhibitor to treat inflammatory diseases. This was an important further step in demonstrating the commercial value of C4XD's expertise, approach to drug discovery, and its business model. Looking ahead, with partnering discussions advancing for our third programme, NRF2, we remain well positioned for growth as multiple partnerable assets in the pipeline continue strong progression." 

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Notes to Editors:

About C4X Discovery

C4X Discovery ("C4XD") is a pioneering Drug Discovery company combining scientific expertise with cutting-edge Drug Discovery technologies to efficiently deliver world leading medicines, which are developed by our partners for the benefit of patients. We have a highly valuable and differentiated approach to Drug Discovery through our enhanced DNA-based target identification and candidate molecule design capabilities, generating small molecule drug candidates across multiple disease areas including inflammation, oncology, neurodegeneration and addictive disorders. Our commercially attractive portfolio ranges from early-stage novel target opportunities to late-stage Drug Discovery programmes ready for out-licensing to partners and we have two commercially partnered programmes with one candidate in clinical development.

We collaborate with leading pharmaceutical and life sciences companies to enrich our expertise and take our assets through pre-clinical and clinical development. Through early-stage revenue-generating licensing deals, we realise returns from our high value pre-clinical assets which are reinvested to maximise the value of our Drug Discovery portfolio.