Autifony Therapeutics achieves second milestone in agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim for a novel therapeutic approach to a range of CNS disorders

Stevenage, UK – 30 May 2019 – Autifony Therapeutics Limited (“Autifony”), a clinical stage company developing new drugs to treat serious disorders of the nervous system, today announced that the second milestone has successfully been achieved under Autifony’s agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim. This comes less than four months after achievement of the first milestone, and shortly after the company announced positive clinical data from its ketamine challenge study. Boehringer Ingelheim acquired an exclusive option to purchase Autifony’s Kv3.1/3.2 positive modulator platform in December 2017. Further details of the milestone were not disclosed.

Included in the agreement is the lead molecule, AUT00206, which is currently under evaluation in a Phase Ib clinical trial in patients with schizophrenia. Further molecules are also showing significant promise with potential to treat other CNS disorders in areas of unmet medical need, such as hearing disorders and Fragile X syndrome.

Dr Charles Large, Chief Executive Officer of Autifony Therapeutics, said: “Achieving the second milestone under our Agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim is another significant and positive step forward. We believe our programme has the potential one day to represent a breakthrough for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia and other CNS disorders.”

Dr Giuseppe Alvaro, Chief Research Officer of Autifony Therapeutics, added: “This latest achievement by our team highlights the knowledge and expertise we continue to build in this exciting and highly promising area of unmet medical need.”

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Notes to Editors

About Autifony Therapeutics Ltd
Autifony Therapeutics is an independent UK based biotechnology company formed in 2011 as a spin-out from GSK, which retains equity in the company. The Company is focused on the development of high value, novel medicines to treat serious diseases of the central nervous system.  It is funded by SV Health Investors, Touchstone Innovations plc (now part of IP Group), Pfizer Venture Investments, International Biotechnology Trust PLC, and UCL Business plc. For more information see www.autifony.com.

About Boehringer Ingelheim
Improving the health of humans and animals is the goal of the research-driven pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The focus in doing so is on diseases for which no satisfactory treatment option exists to date. The company therefore concentrates on developing innovative therapies that can extend patients’ lives. In animal health, Boehringer Ingelheim stands for advanced prevention.

Family-owned since it was established in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s top 20 companies. Some 50,000 employees create value through innovation daily for the three business areas human pharmaceuticals, animal health and biopharmaceuticals. In 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of around 17.5 billion euros. R&D expenditure of almost 3.2 billion euros corresponded to 18.1 per cent of net sales.

As a family-owned company, Boehringer Ingelheim plans in generations and focuses on long-term success. The company therefore aims at organic growth from its own resources with simultaneous openness to partnerships and strategic alliances in research. In everything it does, Boehringer Ingelheim naturally adopts responsibility towards humankind and the environment.

More information about Boehringer Ingelheim can be found on www.boehringer-ingelheim.com or in our annual report:http://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com.

About Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia remains a major healthcare challenge throughout the world. Patients with the condition have a poor quality of life and prognosis. Antipsychotics are the main treatment but in up to a third of people with schizophrenia, the illness shows a poor response to these drugs. Particularly debilitating are cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as poor decision making, attention and memory, and negative symptoms, such as social withdrawal and anhedonia, which make work and relationships difficult to sustain. Side effects of the currently approved antipsychotic drugs are also problematic, including weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, movement disorders and sexual dysfunction. There is a clear need for more effective drugs with fewer side effects.

See ‘The Abandoned Illness’, a report by the Schizophrenia Commission, November 2012.

Issued for and on behalf of Autifony Therapeutics by Instinctif Partners.
For more information please contact:

Autifony Therapeutics Limited
Dr Charles Large
Chief Executive Officer
E:  charles.large@autifony.com

Instinctif Partners
Sue Charles / Tim Watson
T: +44 (0) 20 7866 7861
E: Autifony@instinctif.com