Biophytis relocates to Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) campus and solidifies creation of leading translational platform for age-related disease

21 Feb 2017 18:00 CET

Paris (France), 21 February 2017, 18:00 – BIOPHYTIS (Alternext Paris: ALBPS), a biotechnology company specialized in the discovery and development of drug candidates to treat age-related diseases, today announces that it has relocated to the Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) campus, the site of its scientific origin. Being present on the Jussieu Paris campus will facilitate scientific collaborations between BIOPHYTIS and a team of world-renowned researchers as well as the continued development of a drug discovery platform targeting age-related diseases.

Stanislas Veillet, CEO of BIOPHYTIS, stated: “Developing our research platform for aging, as part of the leading center of excellence in our field in France, is an important step that will further facilitate our ambition to discover novel drugs to treat age-related diseases, for example by affording Biophytis closer interactions with those exploring the use of novel approaches, such as stem cells. Furthermore, the scientific collaborations that we are currently implementing with UPMC scientists will help us explore the potential of our drug candidates to treat related secondary indications to better position Sarconeos in the treatment of sarcopenia and Macuneos in the treatment of AMD.”

Research on the biology of aging is booming at leading academic centers around the world due to the aging population and the increasing incidence of age-related diseases, such as sarcopenia (an age-related muscular dystrophy affecting 50 million people globally), AMD (age-related macular degeneration), which affects the eyes of 20 million people globally or Alzheimer’s disease affecting the brain (30 million patients globally). Aging is characterized by a functional decline which can be perceived as the result of an imbalance between the repair and destruction of cells or organs under the influence of environmental stresses regulated by genetic factors.

Bertrand Friguet’s team at the Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (IBPS), based at UPMC, is one of the most important teams in the world studying the fundamental mechanisms that underlie biological responses to stress and their evolutions throughout aging. The team includes more than 100 researchers on the Jussieu campus. Many other teams, at UPMC, such as the Institute of Myology, the Vision Institute, the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM) and the Institute of Longevity, study age-related diseases linked to their medical specialties in order to better understand these new diseases, develop innovative treatments and promote the opportunity to age in good health.

Jean Mariani, Professor of medicine at UPMC and President of the Scientific Committee of BIOPHYTIS, said: “Over the past few years, the UPMC has developed an unequaled scientific and clinical research capability in France for study aging and age-related diseases. BIOPHYTIS will benefit from this favorable scientific and medical environment to develop drug candidates for muscular dystrophies, age-related retinopathies and other diseases of aging. The establishment of BIOPHITYS on the campus of Jussieu will allow us to more efficiently turn scientific discoveries made by the teams here into new drugs for patients afflicted with these diseases, for which there is often no effective treatment.”

BIOPHYTIS was founded at the heart of UPMC ten years ago and has been collaborating since then with several of UPMC’s research laboratories, which participated in the development of Sarconeos. This drug candidate is in clinical development for the treatment of sarcopenia, after being developed in partnership with IBPS and Myology Institute. Macuneos, a second BIOPHYTIS drug-candidate, in clinical development for the treatment of AMD, developed in partnership with IBPS and the Vision Institute. Moving to the campus of Jussieu facilitates closer scientific ties and allow the positioning BIOPHYTIS’s products as global standards in the treatment of targeted diseases and to study their potential in the treatment of secondary indications.

The move also allows BIOPHYTIS to scale up a research platform consisting of age-related disease cell-based assays, allowing the selection and characterization of bioactive molecules coming from a chemolibrary of natural molecules and their synthetic analogs. This library was assembled by René Lafont, professor emeritus at UPMC and co-founder of BIOPHYTIS over several decades. The company can therefore extend its cell biology and biochemistry laboratory to discover additional drug candidates and to better describe their mechanisms of action. The research platform will now be further enabled by easy access to IBPS’s joint platforms (animal house, proteomics, bioinformatics, etc) and also access to new technologies, such as stem cells.

About BIOPHYTIS:
BIOPHYTIS SA (www.biophytis.com), founded in 2006, develops drug candidates targeting diseases of aging. Using its technology and know-how, BIOPHYTIS has begun clinical development of innovative therapeutics to restore the muscular and visual functions in diseases with significant unmet medical need. Specifically, the company is advancing two lead products into mid-stage clinical testing: Sarconeos (BIO101) to treat sarcopenia and Macuneos (BIO201) to treat dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Located on the Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) campus in Paris, BIOPHYTIS also collaborates with scientists at the Institute of Myology and the Vision Institute.

BIOPHYTIS is listed on the Alternext market of Euronext Paris (ALBPS; ISIN: FR0012816825).

For more information: www.biophytis.com

BIOPHYTIS is eligible for the SMEs scheme

Disclaimer
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company's actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors (“Facteurs de Risque”) section of the Listing Prospectus upon the admission of Company’s shares for trading on the regulated market Alternext of Euronext Paris filed with the AMF, which is available on the AMF website (www.amf- france.org) or on BIOPHYTIS’ website (www.biophytis.com).

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to shares in BIOPHYTIS in any country. Items in this press release may contain forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual results could differ substantially from those anticipated in these statements owing to various risk factors which are described in the Company’s prospectus. This press release has been prepared in 5 both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall supersede.

BIOPHYTIS
Stanislas VEILLET
CEO
Contact@biophytis.com
Tel : +33 (0) 1 44 27 23 00

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Laurence BAULT/Antoine DENRY
Laurence.bault@citigate.fr
Antoine.denry@citigate.fr
Tel : +33 (0)1 53 32 84 78
Mob : +33(0)6 64 12 53 61

Milestones
Bruno ARABIAN
barabian@milestones.fr
Tel : +33 (0) 1 83 62 34 84
Mob : +33 (0) 6 87 88 47 26
LifeSci Advisors
Chris MAGGOS
Managing Director, Europe
chris@lifesciadvisors.com
Tel : +41 79 367 6254

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