Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5

February/March 2019 Report
http://www.pharmtech.com/ono-pharmaceutical-twoxar-collaborate-drug-discovery-research• On March 18, 2019, Ono Pharmaceutical (a Japanese pharmaceutical R&D company)
and twoXAR announced that they signed a drug discovery research collaboration todiscover and develop new treatments for a specific neurological disease (unannounced)• twoXAR will use its AI technology to identify a set of lead compounds• This will them be further optimized by Ono for potential drug candidates• twoXAR will also predict the efficacy and safety of these lead compounds and the twocompanies will together select several compounds to test in further validation studies• Ono will have all exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the compounds obtained
through this collaboration• twoXAR will receive research and license fees from Ono + development and sales
milestones in return• The CEO, Andrew A. Radin states that twoXAR continues to grow its drug development
partnerships internationally• This marks the second collaboration between twoXAR and a globally-operating Japanheadquartered partner
https://labiotech.eu/biotech-of-the-week/som-biotech-huntingtons-disease/• SOM Biotech is a Barcelona-based company that is developing treatments for diseases
such as Huntington’s disease with drugs that are already on the market for other diseases• By using existing drugs to treat other diseases, it lets the company get treatments to themarket faster and at a lower cost than if they were to develop their own drugs• SOM Biotech uses AI to predict which drugs might best treat a particular disease• Benevolent AI is another company that does something similar – they repurpose
treatments for Parkinson’s disease• At the moment however, SOM Biotech’s technology is 3x better at predicting suitabledrugs than competitor companies• The company is currently in a phase IIa trial for an undisclosed Huntington’s treatmento Results are expected later this year
o SOM Biotech then plans to license the drug to an external company to move thetreatment further through clinical trails
o They are expecting the treatment to reach market within 5 years• SOM Biotech was founded in 2009
o Have already made a couple of licensing deals:
1) US Company Corino Therapeutics – licensed out a treatment to treat
transthretin-related hereditary amyloidosis2) Singaporean company U-Cell Therapeutics – signed a licensing agreement todevelop a treatment for brain cancers

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5•••

The company recently raised a financing round of 7M euros to help with the developmentof the Huntington’s disease drug development
The drug repurposing field is getting more interest from big pharma
In the last 20 years, 11 companies that repurposes drugs were acquired by pharmao Ex. Canadian Aspreva Pharmaceuticals – purchases by Swiss Galencia for $915M

http://sombiotech.com• SOM Biotech’s business model us based in out licensing its own program andestablishing joint-venture agreements for the development of repositioned drugs + inlicensing opportunities to enrich their research pipeline• Pipeline graph•

To inquire about partnering opportunities: bd@sombiotech.com.

https://ca.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/217244/aldeyra-therapeutics-shares-shoot-upafter-biotech-unveils-promising-phase-3-trial-results-for-conjunctivitis-treatment-217244.html• Shared of Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc dramatically increased on Tuesday March 26 after
the company announced promising results from a Phase 3 trial for its allergic
conjunctivitis treatmento Shared went up by 34% to $9.58 in afternoon trade• The company plans to meet with regulators in the 2nd half of this year to discuss the trial
results and remaining clinical requirements as its moves to potentially submit a new drug
application for reproxalap to the DFA• Their results suggest the potential of topical ocular reproxalap as a new, safe, andeffective therapeutic option that could be used to complement existing therapy

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5•

They also entered into a loan and security agreement with Hercules Capital that provides
up to $60M in financing

https://missionbio.com• An American precision genomic company• The company’s mission is to help researchers and clinicians unlock single-cell biology
toenable the discovery, development, and delivery of precision medicine• Tapetsri is their Precision Genomics Platformo Claim to be the industry’s first scalable, customizable, single-cell DNA analysis
platformo Their Tapestri Platforms provides insight into the heterogeneity among cells thatdrive complex diseases like cancero Help researchers understand genetic variability (ex. mutation co-occurrence at thesingle-cell level)o Can be used to map disease progression and better guide dynamic treatment
o Delivers targeted solutions
https://vator.tv/news/2019-03-28-mission-bio-partners-with-labcorp-to-push-genomics-in-drugdevelopment• Mission Bio announced a partnership with biopharma research company LabCorp to help
accelerate biopharma clinical trailso Mission Bio’s technology called the Tapestri Platform is used by researchers,
hospitals, and clinicians to detect disease progression and treatment response,
inform drug discovery and verify gene editso It is currently being used by more than a dozen cancer centers, including theNational Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, MD
Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, University ofCalifornia-San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania, and Washington
University School of Medicine• LabCrop’s Covance Drug Development Business will be the first global contract researchorganization to offer services on the Tapestri Platformo They are also evaluating the Tapestri Platform for applications in clinicaldiagnostics and in the development of new companion diagnostics• In December, Mission Bio raised a $30 million Series B funding round• The company has raised more than $50 million in total• The partnership with LabCorp is largely to support Mission Bio’s global expansion andmake sure their pharma partners can access their technology at the scale that they need
• Mission Bio also formed a partnership with contract manufacturing organization
Argonaut Manufacturing Services
o They will be building the kits that go out to Mission Bio’s customers

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5

https://labiotech.eu/medical/uk-government-healthcare-genomics/• UK government is take a positive stance towards incorporation of genomics into
healthcareo This has created many business opportunities for the country’s biotech companies• Following completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project at the end of 2018, the NHS
Genomic Medicine Service launchedo This service aims to incorporate data and knowledge about human genomics intostandard healthcare• Genomic England now has large amount of important genetic data → great opportunities
for collaboration for complies in this fieldo Ex. Cambridge Cancer Genomics is partnering with Genomics England toimprove access to and effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies using AItechnology▪ They have developed a ‘sequencing panel’ as part of its work withGenomics England to allow quick and cost-effective estimation of tumour
mutations (measuring the amount of mutations in a tumour using wholegenome sequencing)▪ Combining this with their ‘liquid biopsy’ blood tests would allowoncologists to predict how well a patient would respond to therapy andwhen they are becoming resistant• Genomics is an Oxford-based biotech that raised 37M euros in a Series B round at theend of last year → they are also hoping to take advantage of the UK government’s
interest in personalized medicine
o The company uses machine learning to mine genomic data and predict theoutcome of therapy for diseases
o They focus on advancing personalized medicine
o They announced in the week of March 21 2019 that they have developed
predictive genetic tests for 16 common diseases (including asthma, glaucoma,prostate cancer)
o The company calculates a ‘polygenic risk score’ for each condition by combining
information on how many genetic variants a person has that are linked toincreases risk for developing each condition• Genomic England has been actively encouraging industry partnerships for several years
through their Discovery forum – a platform to enable industry partners and others tocollaborate and use data from the 100,000 Genome Projecto Cambridge Cancer Genomics and Genomics are both members of thiso Other members include innovative UK biotechs in the genomics space like
Cambridge Epigenetic and Eagle Genomics
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/mdcf-npi032819.php• The European Advanced infraStructure for Innovative Genomics (EASI-Genomics) is a
project funded under the European Union’s research and innovation programme Horizon

Eugene Consulting Inc.
111 St. Clair Ave W
Toronto, ONM4V 1N5••••2020 that will provide researchers free-of-charge access to cutting-edge European
genomic facilities
EASI-Genomics will join 16 partners to support diverse genomics projects from study
design to bioinformatic analysis
EASI-Genomics is an infrastructure project with a total budget of 10 million euro thatwill handle between 150 and 300 projects over a period of 4 years
The project started with a kick-off meeting on Feb 18 and 19, 2019 in Barcelona, Spain
Their mission is to provide easy access to cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies toresearchers and supporting scientists to ensure that they are meeting the latest Europeanand national ethical and legal requirements