Verici Dx plc

("Verici Dx" or the "Company") 
 

Appointment of Non-executive Director
 

Verici Dx plc (AIM: VRCI), a developer of advanced clinical diagnostics for organ transplant, announces the appointment to the Board of Lorenzo Gallon, MD, as Non-executive Director with immediate effect.

Professor of Medicine (Nephrology and Hypertension) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation), Dr. Gallon is currently the Medical Director of the Translational Medicine Program, the Director of International Relations and the Director of the Renal Transplant Fellowship at Northwestern University, He is an alumnus of the University of Padua Medical School, Italy.

Dr. Gallon has extensive experience in nephrology and hypertension as well as organ transplantation. He was a collaborator and co-author with Dr. Barbara Murphy in the GoCar study¹, which was foundational in the development of Verici's products. He has acted as an advisor / consultant for multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, such as Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Horizon Therapeutics, Inc., and Argenx Pharma. He is also a member of the Editorial Board at the journal Nephron since 2019. In 2012, Dr Gallon was part the Northwestern Medicine transplant team that conducted the first successful removal and implantation of a kidney from one patient to another after the organ failed in the first recipient. The findings of the case were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In March 2021, Verici Dx unveiled that it has partnered with Dr Lorenzo Gallon, together with Dr Milagros Samaniego at Henry Ford Health System and Dr Daniel G. Maluf at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, in order to initiate the first US clinical trials for its two lead products, Clarava™ and Tuteva™. The trial will use next generation sequencing in the Verici laboratory to create transcriptomic profiles to validate performance characteristics of Clarava™ and Tuteva™. In the longer term, Verici is also seeking to work on the validation of its fibrosis test.

Julian Baines, MBE, Non-executive Chairman of Verici Dx, said:

"On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Lorenzo to Verici Dx. He brings extensive experience counselling boards and executives and will be an integral advisor helping us accelerate innovation in kidney disease and transplantation, especially on validation of our two lead products, Clarava™ and Tuteva™. The wealth of clinical acumen Lorenzo brings will definitely add value to the work we do every day on behalf of the millions of patients who had or waiting for kidney transplant. We look forward to embarking on our next phase of growth with our strengthened Board."

Dr Lorenzo Gallon, Non-executive Director of Verici Dx, said:

"I'm honoured to join the Verici Dx Board of Directors and share my perspective as advisor with nearly 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, particularly in nephrology and organ transplantation. I am glad to see the continuing development of relationships between academics and biotechnology companies, and I want to do all that I can to use my knowledge and experiences I've obtained to help advance innovation in the treatment as well as diagnostic testing of those who have kidney disease."

Regulatory Disclosures

Dr Lorenzo Giovanni Gallon, aged 56, currently has no shareholding in the Company and there is no further information required to be disclosed under Rule 17 or paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

¹ - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27452608/

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About Verici Dx plc www.vericidx.com

Verici Dx is developing and commercialising tests to understand how a patient will and is responding to organ transplant, with an initial focus on kidney transplants. The body's own immune system poses a threat to a successful transplant or graft. Patients' immune systems differ in how they respond to the presence of the transplanted organ, characterising this response is called immune phenotyping. Our products and solutions are underpinned by extensive scientific research into the recipient's immune phenotype and how that impacts on acute rejection, chronic injury and ultimately failure of the transplant. These immuno-profile signatures also inform clinicians as to the optimal strategy for immunosuppressive and other therapies for the most successful treatment to ensure graft acceptance with the least amount of side effects.

The foundational research was driven by a deep understanding of cell-mediated immunity and is enabled by access to expertly curated collaborative studies in highly informative cohorts in kidney transplant.