Data confirming the promise of THR-687 in treating DME and other retinal vison-threatening retinal diseases, and charactarization of a preclinical model for testing and developing drug candidates for different stages of dryAMD

Leuven, Belgium , 29 September 2020 - 8.00 A.M. CET - Oxurion NV (Euronext Bxls: OXUR), a biopharmaceutical company developing next generation standard-of-care therapies for diabetic macular edema (DME), announces today that it will present new pre-clinical data on THR-687 at the EURETINA 2020 Virtual Meeting taking place October 2-4 th. The European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA) was established over 20 years ago and hosts the leading annual European retinal congress which now attracts over 5,000 vitreoretinal and macular specialists.

The company will make two presentations on pre-clinical data at the meeting as follows (sessions are virtual so have no allocated time slots):

1. Title: THR-687, a potent pan-RGD integrin antagonist, holds promise as next-generation therapy for diabetic macular edema (DME)

• Presenter: Tjing-Tjing Hu, Ph.D.
• Session: New Drug Treatment and Technology The goal of this study was to further investigate the therapeutic potential of THR-687 in the streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat model. This study showed that THR-687, a pan-RGD integrin antagonist, potently inhibits retinal vascular permeability, inflammation, pericyte loss and gliosis induced by diabetes in the STZ rat. Given its multifaceted mode of action and broad therapeutic potential, this study confirms THR-687 as a promising drug candidate for the treatment of vision-threatening retinal pathologies such as diabetic retinopathy (DR) and DME.

2. Title: Characterization of the acute rat model of sodium iodate-induced dry age-related macular degeneration (dryAMD)

• Presenter: Inge Van Hove, Ph.D.
• Session: AMD Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a multifactorial, degenerative retinal-choroidal disease and the leading cause of blindness in the elderly in developed countries. This study aimed to characterize a rat model of the disease, using several non-invasive modalities complemented with immuno-histological analyses. The study findings indicate that this preclinical model is appropriate for testing and developing drug candidates for different stages of dry AMD using complementary read-outs.

Details of the abstracts can be found on the EURETINA 2020 Virtual website: https://www.euretina.org/congress/amsterdam-2020/virtual-2020-freepapers/