ABIVAX to Receive €8.4 Million from Bpifrance "Invest in the Future Program” (PIA) for the Development of Innovative Antiviral Drugs

Regulatory News:

ABIVAX (Paris:ABVX) (Euronext Paris: FR0012333284 – ABVX), an innovative biotechnology company targeting the immune system to eradicate viral disease, will receive €8.4 million from the competitive funding call "Projets de R&D Structurants Pour la Compétitivité” (PSPC) of the "Invest in the Future Program” (PIA). This program is supervised by the General Commissariat of Investment (Commissariat Général de l’Investissement) and operated by Bpifrance. The funding will strengthen ABIVAX’s proprietary antiviral platform by accelerating the identification and optimization of new antiviral therapeutics.

"We are excited to support ABIVAX, with their globally leading innovative technology” said Jeremy Berthuin, Head of Healthcare sector at Bpifrance. "With this funding we aim at accelerating the development and launch of novel antiviral drugs for critical unmet medical needs.”

"Through our partnership with the CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) and with the help of this funding from Bpifrance, we are enthusiastic about the opportunity to scale-up our antiviral platform,” said Professor Hartmut Ehrlich, MD, CEO of ABIVAX. "The fact that our anti-HIV drug candidate ABX464 already has shown antiviral efficacy in clinical Phase IIa testing in HIV-patients and that we also were able to identify several other novel compounds from our proprietary library that selectively inhibit other viruses, including chikungunya, were strong arguments to convince the steering committee of the strength of our innovative platform. We are grateful to Bpifrance for its continued support of ABIVAX’s core technology platform, which started with the CaReNa program, and now for providing us with additional resources to further exploit this platform.”

Under this new program, ABIVAX will lead a consortium, including the CNRS and qualified contract research organizations (CROs). A total budget of €18.8 was approved for the project over a period of five years. The total funding provided by Bpifrance is €10.3 million, of which €8.4 million are a mix of loans and subsidies for ABIVAX and €1.9 million for the CNRS.

The funding will allow ABIVAX to increase the throughput and further optimize its antiviral discovery platform, which is based on technologies developed together with the CNRS (Montpellier-France) and the Curie Institute (Orsay-France). The platform has already generated a focused library of over 1,000 small molecule compounds selected for their ability to block viral replication by targeting the RNA-Protein complex (RNP). This innovative approach has broad applicability for the treatment of a number of life-threatening viral diseases, including dengue, influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).

The platform already has been validated by ABX464, a potential functional cure for HIV, currently in Phase II testing. In addition, the platform has generated other compounds inhibiting the replication of other viruses, including ABX311, which is in preclinical testing for treatment of Chikungunya.

Bpifrance is the managing operator for research and development projects structuring competitiveness under the ‘Investments for the Future’ Program led by the General Investment Commission. The goal of these projects is to frame and organize industry sectors or to generate new ones. They aim to strengthen the positions of French businesses in key markets by providing funding for ambitious programs. More broadly they aim to enhance the economic standing of a network of enterprises, by building or consolidating sustainable collaborative relationships between manufacturing, service industries and research organizations.

About ABIVAX
ABIVAX is an innovative biotechnology company focused on targeting the immune system to eliminate viral disease. ABIVAX leverages three technology platforms for drug discovery: an anti-viral, an immune enhancement, and a polyclonal antibody platform. ABX464, its most advanced compound, is currently in Phase II clinical trials for providing a functional cure for patients with HIV/AIDS. It is a first-in-class oral small anti-viral molecule which blocks HIV replication through a unique mechanism of action and also has a strong anti-inflammatory effect. In addition, ABIVAX is advancing a clinical stage immune enhancer as well as multiple preclinical candidates against additional viral targets (i.e. Chikungunya, Ebola, Dengue), and several of these compounds are planned to enter clinical development within the next 18 months. ABIVAX is listed on Euronext compartment B (ISIN: FR0012333284 – Mnémo: ABVX).
More information on the company is available at www.abivax.com.

Follow us on Twitter @ABIVAX_

About the PIA (Programme d’Investissement d’avenir – Investments for the Future Program)
Steered and coordinated by the CGI (Commissariat Général à l’Investissement), the PIA’s initial budget was €35bn; its second phase was approved in 2013 with additional funding €12bn, so that the program’s total budget now reaches €47bn. It was set up to promote six strategic priorities to prepare France for the challenges of tomorrow:

• Higher education and training

• Research

• Modernisation of industrial sectors

• Sustainable development

• Digital economy

• Health and biotechnologies

Find out about the program ‘Investing for the Future’
http://www.gouvernement.fr/investissements-d-avenir-cgi

About Bpifrance
Bpifrance, a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts and the French State, is a trusted partner of entrepreneurs which provides companies with credit, collateral and equity financing support from start up through to stock exchange listing. Bpifrance also provides guidance services and enhanced support for innovation, external growth and export, in partnership with Business France.
Bpifrance offers companies a continuum of financing for each key stage of their development and an offer adapted to specific regional features.
With 47 regional offices (90% of decisions are made regionally), Bpifrance offers entrepreneurs a tool for economic competitiveness. Bpifrance works in support of the public policies pursued nationally and regionally by the French government, to meet three objectives:

• support the growth of businesses;
• prepare for future competitiveness;
• contribute to the development of a favorable ecosystem for entrepreneurship.

With Bpifrance, companies have a strong and effective local contact to meet all their financial, innovation and investment needs.
For more information, please visit: www.bpifrance.fr – http://investissementsdavenir.bpifrance.fr/ – Twitter: @bpifrance

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