HitGen and Almirall Announce Achievement of Milestone in Their Strategic Collaboration

CHENGDU, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HitGen Inc. (688222.SH) announced that the company has achieved a milestone in their strategic collaboration with Almirall to develop a novel class of drugs. The licensed compounds were identified using HitGen’s leading technology platform, which involved screening large DNA encoded libraries, containing more than 500 billion of small molecules with drug-like properties synthesized on chemically diverse scaffolds.

A number of novel small molecule leads for an undisclosed target nominated by Almirall were the subject of this achievement. Under the terms of collaborative agreement, HitGen will grant exclusive rights to Almirall for further development and commercialization, and be eligible for preclinical and clinical milestone payments from Almirall as the project progresses, in addition to upfront license fee.

“We are delighted to announce this key achievement in our strategic collaboration with Almirall, a leading medical dermatology focused global pharmaceutical company, in such a short time. The successful identification of these licensed compounds has further demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of our DEL platform to discover novel small molecules against a variety of targets. We look forward to seeing the further progress made by Almirall for their innovative research programs to address unmet medical needs,” said Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HitGen.

Bhushan Hardas, M.D., MBA, Chief Scientific Officer of Almirall, commented that “We are thrilled to have achieved success at a fast pace in this strategic collaboration with HitGen’s platform to discover novel small molecules in a challenging target. Patients suffering with several unmet medical needs will be able to benefit from Almirall R&D investment”.

About Almirall

Almirall is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on skin health. We collaborate with scientists and healthcare professionals to address patient’s needs through science to improve their lives. Our Noble Purpose is at the core of our work: “Transform the patients' world by helping them realize their hopes and dreams for a healthy life”. We invest in differentiated and ground-breaking medical dermatology products to bring our innovative solutions to patients in need.

The company, founded in 1943 and headquartered in Barcelona, is publically traded on the Spanish Stock Exchange and is a member of the IBEX35 (ticker: ALM). Throughout its 77-year history, Almirall has retained a strong focus on the needs of patients. Currently, Almirall has a direct presence in 21 countries and strategic agreements in over 70, through 13 subsidiaries, with about 1,800 employees. Total revenues in 2019 were 908.4 million euros.

For more information, please visit almirall.com

About HitGen Inc.

HitGen is a rapidly growing biotech company with headquarters based in Chengdu, China, with a subsidiary in the USA. HitGen has established an industry-leading platform for early-stage drug discovery research centred on DNA encoded chemical libraries (DELs). HitGen’s DELs include encoded syntheses for hundreds of billions of novel, diverse, drug-like small molecule and macrocycle compounds. These compounds are members of DELs synthesised from many hundreds of distinct chemical scaffolds, designed and assembled with tractable chemistry based on proven results for identifying drug-like leads against biological targets from known and novel classes. HitGen is working with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies, foundations and research institutes in North America, Europe and Asia to discover and develop novel therapeutics of the future.

For more information, please call [phone] or visit www.hitgen.com.

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