Poolbeg Identifies Novel RSV Drug Candidates

Poolbeg identifies new potential drug candidates for respiratory syncytial virus infections as part of artificial intelligence program

• Collaboration with OneThree Biotech identifies new RSV treatments
• First-time RSV drug candidates identified with AI
• Candidates with existing Phase I clinical data packages prioritized to minimize risk

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / December 21, 2022 / Poolbeg Pharma (AIM:POLB)(OTCQB:POLBF) ‘Poolbeg’ or the ‘Company’), a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases, announces that it has developed potential new drug candidates from its respiratory syncytial virus (‘RSV’) synthetic successfully identified artificial intelligence (‘AI’) Program with OneThree Biotech, Inc.

Since the start of the collaboration in February 2022, Poolbeg’s scientific team has worked closely with OneThree to build a custom AI approach that uses Poolbeg’s unique RSV human challenge trial data to identify disease-relevant biological pathways and potential drug targets. Based on those newly discovered drug targets, the collaboration has now identified a number of promising drug candidates to rapidly advance to laboratory-based validation to determine the full potential of these assets.

The company prioritized compounds with existing Phase I clinical data and which, if successfully validated, could be repositioned as new treatments for RSV infection. Candidates with solid safety and pharmacodynamic data in humans are well positioned to rapidly enter a clinical trial to generate early human efficacy data for RSV. This is in line with Poolbeg’s efficient, capital clinical development strategy which is at the heart of its ambitious growth model.

RSV, which inflames the lungs’ smallest airways, usually sends an average of 58,000-80,000 children under the age of 5 to the hospital each year in the U.S. alone, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). RSV can also be dangerous for adults over 65, resulting in approximately 177,000 hospitalizations per year in the United States alone. The current cold and flu season started about two months earlier than expected and is already coming up against some of the worst seasons on record with RSV hospitalizing young children in the United States and Europe at an alarming rate. Public health officials have been warning for weeks that a “tri-demic” of SARS-CoV-2, influenza and RSV would cripple an already strained health care system. RSV has sickened so many young children this fall that weekly pediatric hospitalizations in the US are the highest on record.

Jeremy Skillington, PhD, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma said: “In the past few months, RSV has sent children to the hospital at alarming rates in the United States and Europe. As pediatric units fill beyond capacity, and our health care systems face a ‘triedemic’ of RSV, influenza, and SARS-CoV- 2, the need for better treatments has never been more urgent.

We are impressed with the quality of work carried out so far with OneThree who have used their AI expertise to present new drug potential candidates from our unique human challenge trial data which Poolbeg will now optimize for further development in RSV, the only one of the three major respiratory diseases for which there are still no approved vaccines and where treatment options are limited.”

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Neel S. Madhukar, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of OneThree Biotech, said: “We are very pleased to work with Poolbeg and have the opportunity to deploy the ATLANTIS platform to complete the first AI-driven analysis of RSV disease progression data. I am delighted that Poolbeg’s unique dataset combined with OneThree’s externally validated platform has now delivered new actionable insights around disease biology and drug discovery that can bring much-needed treatment options to both the young and the elderly; most vulnerable to RSV infection.”

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About Poolbeg Pharma

Poolbeg Pharma specializes in the development of innovative medicines to address the unmet need in common and emerging infectious diseases. Poolbeg has a disciplined portfolio approach to reduce risk, accelerate drug development and improve investor returns. The Company is simultaneously advancing multiple programs in cost-effective clinical trials, rapidly generating early human safety and efficacy data to enable early partnering / out-licensing, with the funds generated reinvested in the pipeline. Poolbeg also uses AI to interrogate human challenge trial data sets to rapidly identify new targets and drugs, and to license drugs near or into the clinic, leading to faster development and greater commercial appeal.

The company is targeting the growing market for infectious diseases. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, infectious diseases have one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical markets, expected to exceed $250 billion by 2025.

With its initial assets from hVIVO plc (formerly Open Orphan plc), a leading infectious disease and human challenge company, Poolbeg has access to knowledge, experience and clinical data from over 20 years of human challenge trials. The Company uses these insights to acquire new assets as well as to reposition products in the clinical stage, reducing spend and risk. Among its portfolio of exciting assets, Poolbeg has a small molecule immunomodulator for severe influenza (POLB 001) that has completed its LPS human challenge trial with full data readout expected in Q2 2023; a first-in-class, intranasally administered RNA-based immunotherapy for respiratory viral infections (POLB 002); and a vaccine candidate for Melioidosis (POLB 003). The company is also developing two oral delivery programs and advancing two artificial intelligence (AI) programs to add promising new assets to its pipeline.

For more information, please visit www.poolbegpharma.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn @PoolbegPharma.

About OneThree Biotech

OneThree Biotech is a privately held, clinically validated, biology-driven artificial intelligence (AI) company focused on using its proprietary ATLANTIS AI platform in combination with systems biology to understand the mechanisms that drive drug-target-disease relationships. understand. This approach has not only been used to generate a pipeline of first-in-class programs, but also in partnerships with other biopharmaceutical companies. OneThree Biotech’s proven technology platform integrates chemical, biological and clinical data with the latest computational tools to answer complex questions around disease biology and drug discovery. The company’s AI platform has demonstrated success in identifying new targets for the treatment of various cancers and optimizing early-stage drug discovery and development by rapidly and accurately generating new, testable insights and hypotheses. The OneThree platform has been validated through multiple partnerships, clinical trials and more than 20 peer-reviewed early stage drug discovery publications. OneThree Biotech is based in New York City.

For more information, please visit https://onethree.bio/

Twitter: @onethreebiotech

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SOURCE: Poolbeg Pharma PLC

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