Aligos Therapeutics is awarded €1.8M VLAIO grant to advance chronic hepatitis B research

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and LEUVEN, Belgium, Nov. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aligos Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALGS), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapeutics to address unmet medical needs in viral and liver diseases, today announced that its Belgian subsidiary Aligos Belgium BV has been awarded a €1.8M grant by the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) to support a nonclinical research project related to combination therapy for Hepatitis B at Aligos (CoHeBA).

“CoHeBA aims to elucidate the mechanism of action of the therapeutic candidates for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) currently in development at Aligos,” said Yannick Debing, Ph.D., principal scientist and lead on the project application. “The support from VLAIO will allow us to collaborate with some of the most esteemed leaders in the hepatitis B field to identify how Aligos’ CHB assets target components of the hepatitis B virus life cycle. Developing a greater understanding of the candidates’ mechanism of action will empower our scientific team to develop pharmacologically best-in-class therapies.”

The three-year project will include collaborations with the laboratories of Prof. Jan Paeshuyse (KU Leuven, Belgium), Profs. Stephen Locarnini and Hans Netter (VIDRL, Melbourne, Australia), Profs. Patrick Kennedy and Upkar Gill (Queen Mary University London, United Kingdom), and Profs. Thomas Baumert and Eloi Verrier (INSERM U1110, University of Strasbourg, France).

“Our team at Aligos Belgium BV contributes greatly to our success in discovering potential therapies for an infection that affects hundreds of millions of people, increasing their risk of end-stage liver disease,” said Lawrence Blatt, Ph.D., MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Aligos. “We expect that the outcomes of this project will help us design the most promising combination therapies and next-generation therapeutics for those patients.”

About Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB)

CHB is a major cause of chronic liver disease that affects over 290 million people worldwide. Serious complications of CHB include cirrhosis and liver cancer, which are associated with significant mortality. Approximately 900,000 people died from CHB-related causes in 2015 alone and the mortality rate associated with HBV-related liver cancer continues to increase. Although current standard of care for patients with CHB is effective in suppressing HBV, it is associated with very low rates of functional cure, which is the goal for future CHB treatments.

About Aligos

Aligos Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that was founded in 2018 with the mission to become a world leader in the treatment of viral infections and liver diseases. Aligos is focused on the development of targeted antiviral therapies for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and coronaviruses as well as leveraging its expertise in liver diseases to create targeted therapeutics for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Aligos’ strategy is to harness the deep expertise and decades of drug development experience its workforce has in liver disease, particularly viral hepatitis, to rapidly advance its pipeline of potentially best-in-class molecules.

About the Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
(Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen, VLAIO) – www.vlaio.be

This project is supported by the Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, the point of contact of the Flemish Government for all entrepreneurs in Flanders. VLAIO stimulates and supports innovation and entrepreneurship and contributes to a favorable entrepreneurial climate, in collaboration with many partners.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements in this press release that are not historical facts may be considered “forward-looking statements,” including without limitation statements regarding Aligos’s expectations that the outcomes of the CoHebA project will enable Aligos’ development of next generation, pharmacologically best-in-class therapies and Aligos’ design of combination therapies. Forward-looking statements are typically, but not always, identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “believe,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” and other similar terminology indicating future results. Such forward-looking statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause our development programs, future results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include without limitation risks and uncertainties inherent in the drug development process, including Aligos’s clinical-stage of development, the process of designing and conducting clinical trials, the regulatory approval processes, the timing of regulatory filings, the challenges associated with manufacturing drug products, Aligos’s ability to successfully establish, protect and defend its intellectual property, other matters that could affect the sufficiency of Aligos’s capital resources to fund operations, reliance on third parties for manufacturing and development efforts, changes in the competitive landscape and the effects on our business of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of Aligos in general, see Aligos’s prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 19, 2020, and its future periodic reports to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Aligos undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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