Lipigon and HitGen announce achievement of an important milestone in dyslipidemia project Release Time：2022-03-21

Lipigon Pharmaceuticals AB ("Lipigon") and HitGen Inc. (“HitGen”) today announced that they have identified novel small molecules that could be starting points for developing drugs targeting dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease.

The compounds were identified using HitGen’s technology platform within the framework of the companies' collaborative project on dyslipidemia. Compared to traditional high-throughput screening, HitGen's DEL technology enables the screening of thousand-fold more compounds.

The small molecules activate the enzyme lipoprotein lipase (“LPL”) which plays a critical role in breaking down fat in the blood. LPL is a well-validated target for lipid disorders where Lipigon has more than 50 years of research experience. It is believed that increasing LPL activity lowers triglyceride levels, increases HDL, “the good cholesterol”, and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The small molecule LPL activator program is intended for the development of a convenient, oral medicine.  There are currently no LPL activators available to patients or in development.

The identified LPL binders could be the starting point for developing a drug for dyslipidemia (lipid disorders) that remains after standard treatments with, for example, LDL cholesterol-lowering statins. Dyslipidemia is a major contributing risk factor to cardiovascular disease which is the most common cause of death in the world.

Stefan K. Nilsson, CEO and co-founder of Lipigon, comments:

“This is a major milestone in our collaboration with HitGen. After a successful screening, we have now identified chemical starting points suitable for further development. Whilst LPL has been a well-validated target for several decades it has been a hugely challenging target to activate with small molecules. It is an impressive accomplishment by our combined research team to have discovered compounds for this difficult target LPL. Being the origin of Lipigon, this project is special to all of us. Today is a day of pride.”

Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HitGen Inc., comments:

“I am very pleased to see our collaboration with Lipigon reach a major milestone in this very important therapeutic area. The successful identification of these compounds has further demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of our DEL platform to discover novel small molecules against a variety of targets. We look forward to seeing the further progress made by Lipigon. Besides, we also expect more opportunities of collaboration to empower drug discovery in more therapeutic areas."

For more information, please contact:

Stefan K. Nilsson, CEO, Lipigon

Email: stefan@lipigon.se

Phone: +46 705 78 17 68

About Lipigon

Lipigon develops novel therapeutics for patients with lipid metabolism disorders. The company is based on over 50 years of lipid research at Umeå University, Sweden. Lipigon's initial focus is on orphan drugs and niche indications, but in the long term, the company will have the opportunity to target broader indications in the area, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Lipigon's pipeline includes four active projects: the RNA-drug Lipisense for treatment of hypertriglyceridemia; an RNA-drug for treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome; a gene therapy treatment for the rare disease lipodystrophy, together with Combigene AB (publ); and a small molecule program for the treatment of dyslipidemia in collaboration with HitGen (Inc).

The company's share (LPGO) is traded on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market. Certified Adviser is G&W Fondkommission, email: ca@gwkapital.se, phone: +46 8 503 000 50.

About HitGen Inc.

HitGen Inc. is a biotech company headquartered in Chengdu, China, with subsidiaries in Cambridge, UK and Houston, USA. HitGen became a publicly listed company in Shanghai Stock Exchange in April 2020 (ticker code 688222.SH) and  has established a drug discovery research platform for small molecules and nucleic acid drug centered on the design, synthesis and screening of DNA encoded chemical libraries (DELs), fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) and structure-based drug design (SBDD) technologies. HitGen's DELs currently contains more than 1 trillion novel, diverse, drug-like small molecules and macrocyclic compounds. These compounds are members of DELs synthesized from many thousands of distinct chemical scaffolds, designed with tractable chemistry, and have yielded proven results for the discovery of small molecule leads against precedented and unprecedented classes of biological targets. 

For more information, please call +86-28-85197385, +1-508-840-9646 or visit www.hitgen.com.

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For investor inquiries: investors@hitgen.com

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