Poolbeg Pharma plc

Board Appointment

24 May 2023 - Poolbeg Pharma (AIM: POLB, OTCQB: POLBF, 'Poolbeg' or the 'Company'), a leading biopharmaceutical company focusing on infectious and prevalent diseases with a high unmet medical need, announces the appointment of Brendan Buckley as an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Company with immediate effect. Brendan will also replace Cathal Friel as a member of the Remuneration Committee.

Professor Buckley is the former Chief Medical Officer of ICON plc, a medical graduate of University College Cork and a doctoral graduate in Biochemistry in the Faculty of Medicine at Oxford University. Prof Buckley has advised Poolbeg since inception and has deep experience in metabolic diseases including over 40 years' experience in clinical practice as a Consultant Physician in endocrinology, diabetes and in academic clinical pharmacology. Brendan was a member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Medicines Board (now the Health Products Regulatory Authority), chairing its statutory Advisory Committee for Human Medicines. He was also a member of the European Medicines Agency Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) and of the European Medicines Agency Scientific Advisory Committee on diabetes and metabolism. Brendan has published over 150 scientific papers, mainly on metabolic disease, as well as the recent key opinion-leading book 'Re-Engineering Clinical Trials'.

Jeremy Skillington, PhD, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma, said: "We are delighted to have Brendan join the Board of Directors. His significant contribution to Poolbeg during his role as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, and his considerable industry experience will be of tremendous benefit as we continue to pursue our goal of becoming a one-stop-shop for pharma and biotechs seeking products to in-license."

Brendan Buckley, Non-Executive Director of Poolbeg Pharma, said:" I am honoured to be joining the Board at this exciting time of the Company's development. Poolbeg has a unique model and pipeline and I look forward to working alongside such a strong Management Team targeting a number of growing markets."

Regulatory Disclosures

The following disclosures are required under Schedule Two, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies:

Mr Brendan Mary Buckley, aged 73, has held the following directorships and/or partnerships in the past five years:

Current directorships:

·      hVIVO plc

·      FIGHTING BLINDNESS

·      DS BIOPHARMA LIMITED

·      Afimmune Limited

·      Open Orphan DAC

·      Imutex Ltd

Past directorships:

·      BREAKTHROUGH CANCER RESEARCH

·      Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety Inc.

Mr Buckley has a beneficial interest in 2,631,474 ordinary shares of the Company representing approximately 0.5 per cent. of the total voting rights.

- Ends -

Enquiries

About Poolbeg Pharma

Poolbeg Pharma specialises in the development of innovative medicines to address the unmet need in infectious and other prevalent diseases. Poolbeg has a disciplined portfolio approach to mitigate risk, accelerate drug development, and enhance investor returns. The Company simultaneously advances multiple programmes in cost-effective clinical trials, rapidly generating early human safety and efficacy data to enable early partnering / out-licensing, with the funds generated reinvested in the pipeline. Poolbeg also uses AI to interrogate human challenge trial data sets to quickly identify new targets and drugs, and in-license near or in the clinic medicines, leading to faster development and greater commercial appeal.

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. Through opportunistic identification of assets which complement Poolbeg's existing pipeline, the Company is progressing programmes in oncology and metabolic syndromes; adding disease areas with significant addressable markets.

With its initial assets from hVIVO plc (formerly 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. Amongst its portfolio of exciting assets, Poolbeg has a small molecule immunomodulator for severe influenza and other acute inflammatory conditions (POLB 001) which produces a highly significant reduction in p38 MAP kinase driven cytokines in a clinical setting; a first-in-class, intranasally administered RNA-based immunotherapy for respiratory virus infections (POLB 002); and a vaccine candidate for Melioidosis (POLB 003). The Company is also developing two Oral Delivery Programmes and is progressing two Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programmes to add promising new assets to its pipeline.

For more information, please go to www.poolbegpharma.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn @PoolbegPharma.