DEINOVE Collaborates With Naicons To Discover New Antibiotics In The Frame Of The AGIR Project

• DEINOVE expands the AGIR project's field of investigation for the discovery of novel antibiotic structures by accessing the strain bank of rare bacteria selected by NAICONS.
• NAICONS has been convinced by the power of DEINOVE's robotic and integrated screening platform to rapidly identify and develop new antibiotics.

Montpellier (GlobeNewswire) - DEINOVE (Euronext Growth Paris: ALDEI), a biotech company that discovers, develops, and produces high-value compounds from rare bacteria, announces that they have signed an exclusive research license with NAICONS to expand their current strain bank and increase the opportunities to discover new antibiotics.

The AGIR (Antibiotics against Resistant Infectious Germs) project, carried out by DEINOVE and its subsidiary DEINOBIOTICS, and supported by the Investments for the Future Program, aims to discover new antibiotics by systematically exploring the potential of the living world, and more specifically the great diversity of microorganisms. The project plans to rapidly and selectively enrich the collection of 6,000 rare bacterial strains of DEINOVE, in order to maximize the chances of discovery.

In addition to the collection of new strains in various natural environments, launched in 2017, DEINOVE has engaged a collaboration with the Italian biopharmaceutical company NAICONS, also specialized in the research for innovative antibiotics, which has a collection of 45,000 microbial strains.

As a first step, DEINOVE will have access to 400 strains carefully selected for their potential and will use the power of its robotic technology platform to detect and characterize the antibiotic activities of these strains. In case of discovery of a strain of interest, DEINOVE may acquire it (under the conditions provided for in this agreement) either via a commercial license or in full ownership, in order to initiate the development of drug candidates.

"We chose to open our rare bacteria collection to Deinove as part of an exclusive agreement because we are confident that they have the resources to discover antibiotics through their breakthrough technologies and the know-how of their team. Our collection can provide a larger number of antibiotics than we can discover with our own resources," said Stefano Donadio, CEO of NAICONS.

Emmanuel PETIOT, CEO of DEINOVE, said: "Our collaboration with Naicons is a good example of our antibiotics development model: this company historically rooted in the pharmaceutical sector has an interesting biological heritage which potential we can quickly explore, thanks to our reference platform. Joining forces to advance faster is essential to win the battle against the development of antibiotic resistance. This type of collaboration must be extended in the near future if we truly want to respond to this global public health threat."

ABOUT THE AGIR PROJECT
The AGIR project, selected by the 'Investments for the Future' Program, led by the General Investment Commission (CGI) and operated by Bpifrance, within the framework of the call for projects "Structural R&D Projects for Competitiveness", is carried out by the DEINOVE Group together with the CHARLES VIOLLETTE INSTITUTE (CVI) It aims to implement an innovative strategy for the discovery of new antimicrobials - antibiotics and antifungal agents - through an integrated and automated approach. Its objective is to develop new technologies to optimize the platform for selecting, identifying, and developing new antimicrobial molecules of natural origin.

The AGIR project represents a total investment of € 25 million over five years and will be financed to a level of €14.6 million by the 'Investments for the Future' Program.

ABOUT NAICONS
Entirely owned by individuals with extensive experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, NAICONS is a unique discovery engine based on natural products for the development of bioactive compounds, particularly novel antibiotics.

NAICONS' business strategy is to advance drug candidates to significant value creation, then partner them out for further development.

Since its start in 2006, NAICONS has out licensed two products, secured several million euros in research grants and established collaborations with several national and international companies. NAICONS' scientists have filed several patent applications and published their research results in important international journals.

ABOUT DEINOVE
DEINOVE (Euronext Growth Paris: ALDEI) is a biotech company that discovers, develops and produces high added-value compounds from rare microorganisms for use in the fields of health, nutrition and cosmetic markets.

To do so, DEINOVE draws on two key assets:

• a unique library of 6,000 rare or unexploited bacterial strains;
• a genetic, metabolic and fermentation engineering platform capable of customizing these natural "micro-factories" to transform them into new industrial standards.

Based in Montpellier, DEINOVE employs approximately 55 employees and has nearly 160 international patents. The Company has been listed on Euronext Growth since April 2010.

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