November 10, 2014

Pharco Pharmaceuticals Licenses Clinical Stage Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) NS5A Inhibitor PPI-668 from Presidio Pharmaceuticals

November 10, 2014 07:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Pharco committed to developing curative therapy for Egyptians with HCV

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pharco and Presidio today announced that they have entered into an exclusive license agreement for Presidio’s HCV NS5A inhibitor PPI-668 for development and commercialization to treat HCV infection in Egypt. This exclusive license includes an opportunity for Pharco to expand its licensed territory to one or more additional countries in the MENA region.

“We look forward to our collaboration with Pharco to provide HCV patients with this highly active inhibitor.”

“This licensing agreement provides Pharco with an opportunity to develop an effective, safe and affordable treatment for Egyptians with HCV infection,” said Dr. Sherine Helmy, BSc, MBA, DBA, Pharco Pharmaceuticals Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer. “We believe that PPI-668, in combination with other therapeutic agents offers another potential path to treat and, hopefully, cure patients.”

“PPI-668 is a potent HCV NS5A inhibitor with a favorable pharmacokinetic profile that has shown high SVR rates in combination with other direct acting antiviral agents,” said Richard Colonno, Ph.D., Presidio’s Chief Scientific Officer. “We look forward to our collaboration with Pharco to provide HCV patients with this highly active inhibitor.”

Pharco will fund clinical development and commercialization of PPI-668 in Egypt, and potentially the MENA region. Presidio will receive upfront and development milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties based on product net sales in Egypt and potentially the MENA region. Pharco made an equity investment in Presidio related to the license agreement.

About Pharco Pharmaceuticals

Pharco Pharmaceuticals is the founding member company of Pharco Corporation, founded by Dr. Hassan Abbas Helmy and started operations in 1987. Pharco Corporation is a group of nine health care companies operating in the pharmaceutical field for development, manufacturing, marketing, distributing and exporting a comprehensive array of branded and generic drugs, along with an increasing number of licensed pharmaceutical products. Today Pharco employs over 8,000 employees, and has over 500M product sales units—ranking as the leader in the Egyptian pharmaceutical market, with 13.2% market share in 2013. Pharco also exports to 47 countries around the world. Pharco works towards one goal…to provide highly effective, safe pharmaceutical products to patients at an affordable price.

About Presidio

Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a San Francisco-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of small-molecule antiviral therapeutics. Presidio’s current focus is on effective therapies for HCV infection. With a current pipeline consisting of compounds targeting both the NS5A and NS5B proteins of HCV, Presidio is well positioned to compete in the growing HCV therapy market. In addition to the NS5A inhibitor, PPI-668, Presidio is also developing a pan-genotypic non-nucleoside inhibitor, PPI-383, which is currently undergoing Phase 1 evaluation. Presidio’s goal is to discover and advance small-molecule, antiviral drug candidates that are potent, have pan-genotypic antiviral activity, offer convenient once-daily oral dosing and can be combined with other classes of HCV antivirals to combat viral resistance. The best future combination regimens will require such characteristics, to simplify patient treatment and to ensure that drug therapy will be effective against the wide variety of known HCV genotypes. For more information, please visit www.presidiopharma.com

Contacts

Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Leo J. Redmond, 415-655-7560
Chief Financial Officer & Acting President
lredmond@presidiopharma.com

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