Navrogen Inc. And Lonza Sign Agreement To Use Lonza's GS Gene Expression System For Navrogen's Anti-HIO Targeting Agents

• Navrogen developing therapies to target Humoral Immuno-Oncology (HIO) factors and reverse inhibitory activity against antibody-based therapies.
• Navrogen to use Lonza’s GS Xceed expression system for expression of novel protein and antibody-based configurations
• Includes GS PiggyBac, a highly efficient gene integration technology ideally suited to support the expression of challenging proteins.

Dr. Nicholas Nicolaides, Ph.D., Navrogen’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.
“Our collaboration with Lonza and their expertise will undoubtedly enable us to advance our pipeline of first-in-class products forward to meet our strategic initiatives and timelines. This partnership is one of many that we have formed with top-tiered vendors who have proven track records in supporting the development of biological-based therapies to support clinical trials and commercialization.”

Dr Sarah Holland, Head of licensing, Lonza Pharma & Biotech
“Developing new technologies to enable production of increasingly complex and hard-to-express biological drugs is a priority for Lonza. Navrogen’s use of our GS PiggyBac system aligns the economics of bringing these first-in-class therapeutics to patients with current market needs.”

Navrogen Inc. and Lonza Pharma & Biotech announced today that they have entered a licensing agreement for the production of Navrogen biotherapeutics using Lonza’s GS Xceed Expression System.

Navrogen recently announced funding to develop biotherapeutics targeting Humoral Immuno-Oncology (HIO) factors to reverse their inhibitory activity against the pharmacologic effects of antibody-based therapies. Navrogen’s biological drugs involve novel protein and antibody-based configurations. Lonza’s GS Xceed toolbox includes GS PiggyBac, a unique and proven transposon-based technology suited for complex protein expression and bioprocessing that preferentially targets stable regions of the genome associated with highly expressed genes. This system will play a key role in advancing Navrogen’s novel therapeutic interventions from the laboratory bench to patient's bedside.

“We are pursuing novel targets, called HIO factors, produced by tumor cells that dampen the effect of a number of antibody-based therapeutics. To overcome the immuno-suppressive effects of these factors we developed a pipeline of uniquely engineered, biological-based compositions that may require optimized systems to facilitate their production at large scale for clinical trials”, commented Dr. Luigi Grasso, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Navrogen.

About Lonza
Lonza is an integrated solutions provider that creates value along the Healthcare Continuum. Through our Pharma Biotech & Nutrition segment and our Specialty Ingredients segment businesses, we harness science and technology to serve markets along this continuum. We focus on creating a healthy environment, promoting a healthier lifestyle and preventing illness through consumers' preventive healthcare, as well as improving patient healthcare by supporting our customers to deliver innovative medicines that help treat or even cure severe diseases.

Patients and consumers benefit from our ability to transfer our pharma know-how to the healthcare, hygiene and fast-moving consumer goods environment and to the preservation and protection of the world where we live.

Founded in 1897 in the Swiss Alps, Lonza today is a well-respected global company with more than 100 sites and offices and approximately 15,500 full-time employees worldwide at the end of 2018. The company generated sales of CHF 5.5 billion in 2018 with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 1.5 billion. For more information, visit www.lonza.com.

About Navrogen
Navrogen Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery of tumor produced HIO-factors that are associated with cancer prognosis and therapeutic response of immune-mediated anti-cancer therapies. Our mission is to develop diagnostic assays that can identify patients whose tumors produce HIO-factors to advise physicians on therapeutic options as well as develop first-in-class agents that can overcome the immuno-suppressive effects of a specific HIO-factor. For more information, visit www.navrogen.com.