CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that CAT-5571, which restores host defense by activating autophagy, will be presented in a poster at the 31^st Annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC). NACFC is being held November 2 – November 4, 2017, in Indianapolis, IN, at the Indiana Convention Center.

A poster titled “CAT-5571 Improves the Clearance of Intracellular Burkholderia Cenocepacia from Primary Cystic Fibrosis Macrophages,” resulting from a collaboration between Catabasis and Dr. Amal Amer at Ohio State University, will be presented during Poster Session 1 on Thursday, November 2, 2017, from 11:15am – 1:45pm local time.

About CAT-5571

CAT-5571 is an investigational oral small molecule that is being developed as a potential host-directed therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF)-associated respiratory infections. CAT-5571 restores host defense by activating autophagy, a mechanism for recycling cellular components and digesting pathogens. Autophagy is depressed in CF, and by restoring autophagy, CAT-5571 reestablishes host defense to enhance the clearance of pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cenocepacia, in preclinical models of CF. People with CF suffer from persistent lung infections with opportunistic pathogens such as P. aeruginosa and B. cenocepacia, causing chronic infections that are difficult to eradicate and lead to respiratory failure. CAT-5571 has the potential to augment the efficacy of antibiotics and could also be used with other CF therapies, including transmembrane conductance receptor (CFTR) targeted agents.

About Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare, chronic, genetic, life-shortening disease that affects over 70,000 people with CF worldwide. In CF, a malfunctioning cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator ion channel impairs chloride secretion, resulting in deficient host defense mechanisms and deleterious effects on multiple organs, particularly the lung. Over time, people with CF develop chronic lung infections caused by multiple bacteria, including most frequently P. aeruginosa. Cardiorespiratory failure caused by these persistent, difficult to treat lung infections remains the primary cause of death in people with CF. Chronic bacterial infection in the lungs of people with CF represents a significant unmet medical need that is not adequately addressed with current therapies.

About Catabasis

At Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, our mission is to bring hope and life-changing therapies to patients and their families. Our SMART (Safely Metabolized And Rationally Targeted) Linker drug discovery platform enables us to engineer molecules that simultaneously modulate multiple targets in a disease. We are applying our SMART Linker^SM platform to build an internal pipeline of product candidates for rare diseases and plan to pursue partnerships to develop additional product candidates. For more information on the Company's drug discovery platform and pipeline of drug candidates, please visit www.catabasis.com.

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