Exicure to Present AST-008 Updates at 2020 AACR Virtual Annual Meeting

CHICAGO & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Exicure, Inc. (NASDAQ: XCUR), the pioneer in gene regulatory and immunotherapeutic drugs utilizing spherical nucleic acid (SNA™) constructs, will present at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II, occurring June 22 – 24, 2020.

The AACR poster titled “Phase 1b/2 Study of an Intratumoral TLR9 Agonist Spherical Nucleic Acid (AST-008) and Pembrolizumab: Evidence of Immune Activation” will present updated pharmacodynamic and safety data of AST-008 alone and in combination with pembrolizumab from Exicure’s ongoing Phase 1b/2 study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03684785).

This poster will be presented during the AACR Virtual Meeting II in the session Late-Breaking Research: Clinical Research 1 / Endocrinology under abstract number LB-140. The abstract will be available for viewing on May 15^th and the poster will be available for viewing on June 22^nd.

About AST-008

AST-008 is an SNA consisting of toll-like receptor 9 agonists designed for immuno-oncology applications. As of January 31, 2020, we have dosed 17 patients in the Phase 1b stage of the clinical trial. We have observed no treatment related serious adverse events, nor have we observed any dose-limiting toxicity among the treated subjects. The most common reported adverse event was injection site reactions. In December 2019, we received preliminary results from the Phase 1b/2 stage of the clinical trial showing potential signs of anti-tumor activity in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma. In the second quarter of 2020, we plan to initiate a Phase 2 dose expansion for intratumoral AST-008 in combination with approved checkpoint inhibitors to treat two cohorts of patients with advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma or cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Each cohort is expected to enroll up to 29 patients who have failed anti-PD-1/PD-L1, or programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1, therapy. We expect to open a total of up to 15 sites in the United States.

About Exicure, Inc.

Exicure, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapeutics for neurology, immuno-oncology, inflammatory diseases and genetic disorders based on our proprietary Spherical Nucleic Acid, or SNA technology. Exicure believes that its proprietary SNA architecture has distinct chemical and biological properties that may provide advantages over other nucleic acid therapeutics and may have therapeutic potential to target diseases not typically addressed with other nucleic acid therapeutics. Exicure is in preclinical development of XCUR-FXN, an SNA–based therapeutic candidate for the treatment of Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). Exicure's drug candidate AST-008 is currently in a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors. Exicure is based outside of Chicago, IL and also has an office in Cambridge, MA. For more information, visit Exicure’s website at www.exicuretx.com.

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