LYON, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- POXEL SA (Euronext: POXEL), a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, and ENYO Pharma SAS, a newly-formed company focused on the treatment of acute and chronic viral infections, today announced the signing of a license agreement under which ENYO will gain access to Poxel’s FXR (farnesoid X receptor) agonist compounds for infection-related indications with Poxel retaining rights for cardiovascular and metabolic indications among others. No financial terms of the agreement have been disclosed.

“Poxel has advanced its pipeline based on both our internal expertise in metabolism and cellular bioenergetics and the clinical and preclinical programs we inherited as a spin-out from Merck Serono,” said Thomas Kuhn, CEO of Poxel. “The breadth of therapeutic applications and opportunities represented in this pipeline allows us to out-license compounds for indications outside of our therapeutic focus, thereby bringing in additional revenues and broadening our network of partners.”

“We had opportunity to collaborate with the team at Poxel as an academic research group prior to our founding as a company and are very excited to gain access to Poxel’s FXR agonist program for our further developments in the area of liver-based infections,” commented Jacky Vonderscher, PhD, President of ENYO. “Our goal is to rapidly conduct all IND-enabling studies in order to bring the lead compound into Phase 1 during Q1 2016 and subsequently to treat chronic hepatitis B patients in Phase 2 by 2017.”

About FXR

Farnesoid X receptor (FXR), also known as bile acid receptor, is a member of a nuclear receptor superfamily and has a role in multiple metabolic pathways and especially in controlling the fate of bile acids in the liver and the intestine. It has also been reported to influence insulin sensitivity of these tissues where it is expressed at high levels. The Inserm team founder of ENYO has identified FXR as a direct regulator of hepatitis B virus replication and has shown the dependency of the virus life cycle on the bile acids pathway. Modulating FXR becomes therefore a promising new therapeutic avenue to control and potentially cure chronic hepatitis B which is one of the world leading causes of cirrhosis and liver cancer.

About Poxel SA

Poxel uses its unique development expertise in metabolism to advance a pipeline of truly novel products currently focused on type 2 diabetes. Our first-in-class lead product, Imeglimin, targeting mitochondrial dysfunction, has successfully completed Phase 2 development in the US and EU and has entered clinical development in Japan. We are advancing our second program, PXL770, a direct AMPK activator, through clinical proof-of-concept. We will generate further growth through strategic partnerships and pipeline development. (Euronext: POXEL, www.poxel.com)

About ENYO Pharma SAS

ENYO Pharma was founded in 2014 by four scientists from the International Center for Research in Infectiology, Inserm U1111 in Lyon, France, and seeding partners (Inserm Transfert Initiative, ADV Life Sciences and Vonderscher & Co) followed earlier this year by Sofinnova Partners, a leading venture capital firm based in Paris. The mission of ENYO Pharma is to develop molecules targeting specific host functions for the treatment of acute and chronic viral infections. ENYO Pharma has licensed several Inserm patents issued from the discoveries of the founding scientists and developed a unique platform for the identification of intracellular therapeutic targets and molecules modulating them. The company is currently hosted by Inserm in the Infectiology Center of Lyonbiopôle in Lyon, and maintains tight collaborations with the seminal Inserm team and several international academic groups. (www.enyopharma.com)

Media Contacts
For Poxel SA
Pascale Malgouyres, +33 437 372 012
Chief Business Officer
pascale.malgouyres@poxelpharma.com
or
Gretchen L. P. Schweitzer, Direct: +49 89 2424 3495
Mobile : +49 172 861 85
gschweitzer@macbiocom.com
or
Nicolas Merigeau (Media Relations, France)
Florent Alba (Investor Relations, France)
Direct +33 1 44 71 98 55
poxel@newcap.fr
or
For ENYO Pharma SAS:
Jacky Vonderscher, +33 437 262 976
President
jv@enyopharma.com

Source: POXEL SA

Released May 6, 2015