TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (Nasdaq: HTGM) (HTG), a life science company advancing precision medicine through its innovative transcriptome-wide profiling and advanced medicinal chemistry technology, today provided an update on the progress of its drug discovery business unit, including the filing of a patent application directed towards its first therapeutics target, and announced that its management team will be hosting in-person meetings at the LifeSci Partners 2023 Corporate Access Event from January 9-11, 2023 in San Francisco, CA.
HTG Therapeutics, the company’s drug discovery business unit, has been actively using its transcriptome-informed approach to drug discovery to design and further refine small-molecule chemical libraries throughout 2022. This drug discovery platform is an integrated transcriptomic machine learning chemistry-based drug discovery engine that is expected to help overcome the traditional challenges of selecting and designing drug candidates by rendering a higher potential for success in development. The goal of this transcriptome-informed approach is to enable the selection and characterization of de-risked candidate molecules across selected therapeutic targets of interest leading to potential business development and licensing opportunities in various therapeutic areas.
As a result of the progress made in 2022, the company filed a patent application on December 28, 2022, which included claims directed toward specific compounds, pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treating or preventing disease by administration of the compounds. HTG Therapeutics’ initial therapeutic pipeline is focused on oncology and degenerative neuroscience, emphasizing pharmacologic targets with understood roles in the progression of diseases in these areas.
The most advanced discovery program in oncology is a small molecule program for treatment of liquid tumors. This program is expected to complete lead optimization at the end of the first quarter of 2023, with advancement to support entry into preclinical development later in the year. HTG has another oncology directed small molecule program for the treatment of a solid tumor type that is nearing completion in the hit-to-lead discovery phase, with lead optimization efforts planned through the second quarter of 2023 and subsequent preparation for potential preclinical development expected by the end of 2023. HTG expects to initiate several early discovery-stage programs evaluating small molecule candidates against a variety of different cancers, from which HTG plans to select candidates for additional indications as the company builds that portion of its overall drug discovery pipeline.
In its neuroscience pipeline, the company has completed early discovery stage efforts and chemical library generation for candidate small molecules for application to neurodegenerative conditions which are expected to be in hit-to-lead by the second half of 2023.
In parallel to these therapy-area specific programs, HTG continues to enrich the proprietary dataset supporting its transcriptome-informed drug discovery platform and continues to evolve and refine the complementary artificial intelligence and machine-learning portion of this novel engine throughout these discovery processes.
“The progress that we have made to develop and strengthen our transcriptome-informed drug discovery engine over the past year, resulting in our first patent filing at the end of 2022, has been extensive,” said Stephen A. Barat, SVP of Therapeutics at HTG. “We look forward to completing lead optimization and initiating partnering discussions for further development of these candidates in the first half of 2023 and believe that the data that we have been able to generate to date shows the many potential indications that can be explored in the future and have laid the groundwork for the positive impacts that our proprietary approach will have on drug discovery and development in the future.”
“I am very pleased with the results that have been achieved to date from our proprietary transcriptome-informed drug discovery engine,” stated John Lubniewski, President and Chief Executive Officer of HTG. “Not only is HTG developing a pipeline of potentially licensable drug assets, but the data associated with these drug candidates are expected to serve as proof statements of our approach for biopharma partners who may consider using our platform with their own pipelines in the future. We believe this approach opens up yet another avenue for platform technology licensing in areas outside of our own therapeutics aspirations.”
A video providing an overview of HTG’s Therapeutics business and links to the replays of the company’s therapeutics KOL series are available on the company’s website HERE.
The LifeSci Partners 2023 Corporate Access Event will be held at the Beacon Grand Hotel in San Francisco, CA from January 9-11, 2023. Meetings with the company’s management team can be requested HERE.
About HTG:
HTG is accelerating precision medicine from diagnosis to treatment by harnessing the power of transcriptome-wide profiling to drive translational research, novel therapeutics and clinical diagnostics across a variety of disease areas.
Building on more than a decade of pioneering innovation and partnerships with biopharma leaders and major academic institutes, HTG’s proprietary RNA platform technologies are designed to make the development of life science tools and diagnostics more effective and efficient and to unlock a differentiated and disruptive approach to transformative drug discovery. For more information visit www.htgmolecular.com.
Forward-Looking Statements:
Statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the capabilities and benefits of using RNA profiling in the drug discovery process, results that may be implied from prior results, the goals of HTG transcriptome-informed drug discovery approach and the ability to achieve those goals, the anticipated timing for completing hit-to-lead discovery, lead optimization and advancement into preclinical development, the expected initiation of several early discovery-stage programs, the potential initiation of partnering discussions and the timing thereof, future business development and licensing opportunities, and the design and potential benefits of HTG’s RNA platform technologies. Words such as “believes,” “plans,” “can,” “expects,” “intends,” “will,” “goal,” “potential” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements necessarily contain these identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations, are subject to known and unknown risks, and involve assumptions that may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of various risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks associated with drug discovery and development; past results may not be indicative of future results; the risk that our RNA platform and medicinal chemistry technologies may not provide the benefits that we expect; risks associated with our ability to develop and commercialize our products; risks associated with our ability to enter into licensing, partnering or other transactions for any candidates we discover or develop; the risk that our products and services may not be adopted by biopharmaceutical companies or other customers as anticipated, or at all; our ability to manufacture our products to meet demand; competition in our industry; additional capital and credit availability; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; risks associated with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on us and our customers; and product liability claims. These and other factors are described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including under the “Risk Factors” heading of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2022, as filed with the SEC on November 10, 2022. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.
Investor Contact:
Ashley Robinson
LifeSci Advisors
Phone: (617) 430-7577
Email: arr@lifesciadvisors.com
