Poolbeg Pharma plc

PredictViral™ Patent update

14 October 2021 - Poolbeg Pharma (AIM: POLB), 'Poolbeg' or the 'Company', a clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company with a capital light clinical model, provides an update on new patent filings for its PredictViral™ platform that estimates disease severity and contagiousness in people who are recently infected with a respiratory virus.

Expanding on existing PredictViral™ IP, these latest patent applications have been submitted in the UK and aims to protect a method of predicting whether an individual exposed to a respiratory virus (such as Influenza, RSV, hRV) will have a higher severity of disease and / or be more likely to be contagious. The Company will continue to focus on expanding its IP portfolio as required.

hVIVO (part of Open Orphan plc) filed these predictive biomarker patent applications on behalf of Poolbeg and as agreed as part of the demerger process and as outlined in Poolbeg's IPO Admission Document, ownership will ultimately reside with Poolbeg which will continue to commercialise the platform. This will provide clinicians with a risk score for recently infected patients who are likely to experience a severe form of disease. Identifying viral infections early and triaging patients based on likely severity is vitally important in optimising clinical outcomes and can be particularly important in diseases such as influenza where there is a limited window for successful treatment early in the disease. The Company will continue to focus on expanding its IP portfolio as required.

Poolbeg Pharma believes that the PredictViral™ platform offers diagnostic companies a transformative product that will enhance clinical decision-making while differentiating their platforms at a time of intense competition in this market. Discussions are ongoing with multiple parties to continue this technology's development and license it for commercial use. The global market for diagnostic tools for infectious disease is rapidly growing and is expected to be worth over $19 billion per annum by 2025.

Jeremy Skillington, PhD, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma said:

"Protecting the IP for such an innovative disease severity platform as PredictViral™ is important and key to our strategy of commercialising this cutting-edge technology.

PredictViral™ will provide valuable information for assessing the best course of treatment for viral disease. It has the potential to help early interventions when needed and to reduce the spread of disease, even amongst those who are unaware they are infected - the importance of which has become very clear during the COVID-19 global pandemic."

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About Poolbeg Pharma

Poolbeg Pharma is a clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company, with a capital light clinical model which aims to develop multiple products faster and more cost effectively than the conventional biotech model. The Company, headquartered in London, is led by a team with a track record of creation and delivery of shareholder value and aspires to become a "one-stop shop" for Big Pharma seeking mid-stage products to licence or acquire.

The Company is targeting the growing infectious disease market. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, infectious disease has become one of the fastest growing pharma markets and is expected to exceed $250bn by 2025.

With its initial assets from Open Orphan plc, an industry leading infectious disease and human challenge trials business, Poolbeg has access to knowledge, experience, and clinical data from over 20 years of human challenge trials. The Company is using these insights to acquire new assets as well as reposition clinical stage products, reducing spend and risk. It already has a Phase II ready repositioned small molecule immunomodulator for severe influenza and a portfolio of other exciting assets. The Company plans to broaden this portfolio further going forward and is in active discussions with AI data analysis platforms to help accelerate the power of its human challenge model data and biobank.

For more information, please go to www.poolbegpharma.com