Icosavax, Inc.

PRESS RELEASE CHARM Therapeutics Announces Foundation of Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) LONDON – 19 March 2024 -- CHARM Therapeutics (“CHARM”, “The Company”), a 3D deep-learning research company discovering and developing transformational medicines, today announces the foundation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to provide expert insight and guidance to the Company on the optimal application of 3D deep learning, protein design and prediction in real world medicine. The newly formed Board is comprised of world-leading experts whose skillsets span 3D deep learning and protein structure prediction, drug discovery and oncology. These individuals have a deep understanding of CHARM and its strategic priorities and will work closely with the CHARM leadership team to further advance the Company's proprietary DragonFold platform. DragonFold is an end-to-end 3D deep learning protein-ligand co-folding technology designed for the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics. This pioneering technology enables CHARM to target and develop treatments for previously hard-to-drug targets in cancer and other therapeutic areas. Laksh Aithani, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of CHARM Therapeutics, said:“As CHARM advances its 3D deep learning platform in discovery it’s critical to maintain aligned oversight of our priorities and keep abreast of this emerging field. The individuals who are founding our Scientific Advisory Board are world experts in the application of machine learning to medicine and will provide crucial expertise as we move forward in advancing our programs towards clinical development. I am delighted that CHARM will be guided by such experts and look forward to working closely with them." Founding members of CHARM’s SAB: David Baker, Ph.D. is a Scientific Co-Founder at CHARM and Chair of the SAB. He serves as the director of the Institute for Protein Design, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor of Biochemistry, and an adjunct professor of Genome Sciences, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. David Baker has been leading the field of protein design and protein structure prediction for the last two decades, for which he received the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. David has published over 600 peer-reviewed scientific papers and been awarded over 100 patents. David has also co-founded a number of biotechnology companies, including SANA Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: SANA), Lyell Immunopharma (NASDAQ: LYEL), and Icosavax (NASDAQ: ICVX; recently acquired by AstraZeneca). Professor Paul Workman is a leading cancer research scientist known for pioneering many innovative cancer drugs and personalised medicines targeted at specific molecular abnormalities, a strategy he terms 'drugging the cancer genome'. He introduced the 'Pharmacological Audit Trail', a method employing biomarkers for informed drug development decisions. His work has significantly contributed to understanding cancer-causing proteins, drug resistance mechanisms, and developing inhibitors for protein and lipid kinases, such as AKT and PI3 kinases, and also molecular chaperones like Hsp90. Paul has been instrumental in cancer drug discovery both in academia and the industry over the last 27 years, leading teams based on the non-profit, team science model. Notably, he directed the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London from 1997 to 2016, where he was pivotal in the discovery of 20 drug candidates, 12 of which entered clinical trials, including capivasertib which was approved for breast cancer. From 2014-21, Paul also served as Chief Executive and President of ICR. In addition, Paul was a Co-Founder of Chroma Therapeutics and Piramed Pharma, and he is Science Partner at Nextech Invest. He has won numerous awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Ryan Adams, Ph.D. is a Professor of Computer Science and Machine Learning Researcher at Princeton University. Ryan completed his Ph.D. in Physics under David MacKay at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Cambridge Scholar and a member of St. John's College. From 2011 to 2016, he was an Assistant Professor at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In 2015, Ryan sold the company he co-founded, Whetlab, to Twitter (now X) and spent three years in industry at Twitter and Google before joining the faculty at Princeton in 2018. Professor Adams received the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award and the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. Professor John P. Cunningham, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Statistics and a Principal Investigator at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute. His research focuses on machine learning and its application to both science and industry, particularly employing artificial intelligence tools to understand complex processes such as biological intelligence. Professor Cunningham's background includes postdoctoral work in the Machine Learning Group at the University of Cambridge, graduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Dartmouth College. He is affiliated with several centres at Columbia, including the Foundations of Data Science, the Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, and the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. ENDS CHARM Therapeutics Laksh Aithani, Chief Executive Officer Phone +44 7933 185425 laksh@charmtx.com ICR Consilium Amber Fennell /Jessica Hodgson / Davide Salvi Phone: 44 (0)20 3709 5700 charm@consilium-comms.com About CHARM Therapeutics CHARM Therapeutics is discovering and developing small molecule medicines against difficult-to-drug targets with its proprietary 3D deep learning-enabled platform, DragonFold. Powered by the first high throughput protein-ligand co-folding algorithm and a world-class team of scientists and engineers, CHARM seeks to deliver innovative approaches to create life-changing therapies for patients. Cambridge and London-based CHARM has raised $70 million to date and is building an interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial team, combining leaders from the fields of AI and biotechnology. It is supported by high quality international investors including OrbiMed, F-Prime Capital, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, NVIDIA and grep -vc. For more information, please visit:

Along with Fusion’s pipeline of radioconjugates, AstraZeneca said the deal will bring new research and development (R&D) expertise and supply chain strengthening. Image credit: Shutterstock/Marlon Trottmann. AstraZeneca has agreed to acquire Fusion Pharmaceuticals for up to $2.4bn as the pharma giant looks to broaden its portfolio of radioconjugates. Canadian biotech Fusion specialises in developing radioconjugates, a type of medicine that delivers radioactive isotopes directly to cancer cells using antibodies, peptides or other molecules. By precisely targeting cancer cells, this treatment approach has advantages over traditional regimens such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy in that it does not damage healthy cells. Radioconjugates have emerged as a “promising modality in cancer treatment over recent years”, AstraZeneca stated in a 19 March press release. The deal for Fusion includes an upfront cash payment of $2bn and a specified regulatory milestone-based payment of $400m. Following the deal, Fusion will become a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca while continuing its operations in Canada and the US. Fusion’s lead asset is FPI-2265 – a radioconjugate that targets prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a protein found in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The actinium-225-based therapy is currently in a Phase II trial. It works by emitting alpha particles, a cytotoxic payload, to tumours. See Also: NVIDIA doubles down on AI in healthcare with drug discovery deals Bristol Myers Squibb acquires Karuna Therapeutics for $14bn Along with Fusion’s pipeline of radioconjugates, AstraZeneca said the deal will bring new research and development (R&D) expertise and supply chain strengthening. AstraZeneca will face competition in this space from Novartis, which calls its assets in this area ‘radioligands’. Here, the radioisotope is connected to a cell-targeting ligand. One of Novartis’ leading drugs in this space is Pluvicto (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan), a radioligand approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prostate cancer. Novartis struggled to keep up with demand for Pluvicto , leading to a temporary drug shortage last year. Pluvicto is estimated to see sales of $4.5bn by 2030, according to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Centre. GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology. The other radioligand on the market is also from Novartis, called Lutathera (lutetium Lu 177 dotatate), which gained FDA approval for neuroendocrine tumours in 2018. Novartis is eyeing further indications for the therapy. AstraZeneca made $17bn in sales from its oncology products last year, accounting for 37% of FY 2023 revenue . The drugmaker’s move to acquire Fusion is not the only oncology-strengthening move it has made recently. In December 2023, the company acquired Chinese CAR-T biotech Gracell for $1.2bn. The moves are also part of an uptick in M&A activity for AstraZeneca. In the same month as the Gracell acquisition, AstraZeneca purchased RSV vaccine developer Icosavax in a $1.1bn deal. Earlier this month, the big pharma completed a $1bn acquisition for French rare diseases start-up Amolyt. While announcing the Fusion acquisition, AstraZeneca’s oncology R&D executive vice-president Susan Galbraith said: “Together with Fusion, we have an opportunity to accelerate the development of FPI-2265 as a potential new treatment for prostate cancer, and to harness their innovative actinium-based platform to develop radioconjugates as foundational regimens.”

Pictured: AstraZeneca's production plant in Sweden/iStock, Roland Magnusson AstraZeneca on Wednesday pledged approximately $827 million (£650 million) to increase its presence in the U.K., including a new R&D facility and the expansion of its vaccine manufacturing capabilities. According to the U.K. government, around $573 million (£450 million) of AstraZeneca’s commitment will be used to construct a new facility for the research, development and manufacture of vaccines in Speke, Liverpool. The new campus—which will be designed to be operationally net zero and draw power from renewable sources—is designed to help AstraZeneca produce shots for its global child vaccination program. As part of its partnership with the U.K. government, AstraZeneca will also partner with the Health Security Agency to “advance science for developing and evaluating vaccines,” boosting the country’s resilience against future pandemics, according to the announcement. The alliance will leverage innovations at AstraZeneca’s Speke site and the agency’s Vaccine Development Evaluation Center. The remaining $254 million (£200 million) will go toward a separate site at Europe’s largest life sciences cluster in Cambridge. The facility, co-located with AstraZeneca’s R&D Discovery Center, will be able to house 1,000 employees. Wednesday’s announcement also revealed that AstraZeneca will inaugurate a new manufacturing plant in Macclesfield for one of its cancer therapies. In 2021, the pharma dropped around $484 million (£380 million) to construct this facility, which is set to open later this year. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot in a statement said that the investment marks the 25th-year anniversary since the U.K.-based Zeneca Group merged with the Swedish company Astra AB. “We are proud of our British roots and how far we have come over that time,” Soriot said. “We are now a truly global company that has transformed the lives of millions of patients throughout the world with a relentless focus on science and innovation.” The manufacturing and R&D boost comes after AstraZeneca’s vaccine and immune therapies franchise took a heavy hit from declining COVID-19 sales. In its fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 financial results, the pharma reported a 90% drop in its coronavirus business, which was only slightly offset by the combined sales of its other assets, including Farxiga (dapagliflozin) and Tagrisso (osimertinib). To bolster its vaccine business, AstraZeneca in December 2023 bought into the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine space with a potential $1.1 billion acquisition deal with Icosavax. The biotech is advancing a combination vaccine dubbed IVX-A12, which targets both RSV and human metapneumovirus. Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.