Griffith University Anti-Viral Molecule Screening Collaboration • New drug research collaboration focused on repurposing small molecules with known clinical histories as new anti-viral agents • Utilises highly sensitive screening technology to assist in accelerating drug repurposing strategies • Enhances Island’s drug development pipeline, focused on advancing preventative or therapeutic drugs for existing and emerging viral threats beyond mosquito borne viruses MELBOURNE Australia, 23 August 2021: Australian antiviral drug repurposing company, Island Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: ILA) announces a research and development collaboration with Griffith University to screen for active anti-viral molecules in a rational repurposing strategy. The research and development collaboration is effective immediately. Expenditure under the collaboration will be determined on a project-by-project basis once targets of interest have been jointly agreed by the Parties, but in any event total expenditures attributed to this agreement and Monash Collaboration agreement are not expected to exceed that outlined for R&D in the prospectus. This collaboration adds to Island’s existing collaboration with Monash University and provides the opportunity to explore different libraries of molecules with diverse technologies against viruses of significant unmet medical need. The collaboration agreements enable material advances to Island’s pipeline development beyond its existing mid-clinical stage program, ISLA-101, by providing new opportunities to examine anti-viral molecules against emerging viruses with significant unmet medical need. Under the terms of the Island Pharmaceuticals and Griffith University collaboration, viral targets will be selected by the collaboration’s Joint Steering Committee, comprising individuals from both Island and Griffith. The viral targets will be selected based on recommendations from the Joint Steering Committee and any costs will be supported by Island. The viruses will be screened against small molecule libraries held at the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) Compounds Australia facility, using highly sensitive assays. Depending on the fee paid by Island in a given project, intellectual property will vest with Island or with Island and Griffith. Under either scenario, Island will have the right of first refusal to develop and commercialise molecules that are identified in the screens. Over the course of the five-year Agreement, Island and Griffith may pursue multiple projects, the scope of which will be determined on a project-by-project basis, although no specific number of projects is required. Island will pay market-rate royalties and milestones, which will be determined on a project-by-project basis, to develop and commercialise molecules identified in the screen. The agreement may be terminated if no project is initiated within 6 months of execution of the Agreement and may also be terminated for breach. Prof. Ron Quinn of Griffith University has established a magnetic resonance mass spectrometry approach for rapidly screening either large numbers of target proteins or whole viral lysates against a compound, group of compounds or larger numbers of compounds against known targets. This allows more rapid processing of sample types to identify drug-protein binding. Drugs showing binding interactions can then be assessed for effect in functional biologic assays in in the laboratory of viral immunologist Prof. Suresh Mahalingam from Griffith's Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ). Under the collaboration, molecules will be progressed into animal models of viral diseases, up to and including Biological Safety Level 3 viruses.
