Benzinga | Mar 8, 2021 07:37AM EST

Aridis Announces Out-Licensing Agreement And Product Discovery Agreement With Kermode Biotechnologies; Specific Financial Terms Not Disclosed

LOS GATOS, Calif., March 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aridis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDS) today announced that it has entered into an out-licensing and product discovery agreement with Kermode Biotechnologies, Inc. Kermode works on vaccines and mAbs for zoonotic viruses, which are animal viruses that have the ability to infect humans.

Under the terms of the agreement, the activities of each party and the productsdiscovered using Aridis' APEXTM platform are structured as follow:



Kermode Biotechnologies Aridis Pharma

(Veterinary indications) (Human indications)



* Kermode will fund for one year the * Aridis to grant a discovery of product candidates for non-exclusive license to APEX African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) based and apply the APEX technology on its novel treatment strategy, with an platform to discover vaccines option for swine influenza virus (SIV) and mAbs to ASFV * Retains exclusive rights to mAbs and * Aridis exclusively retains vaccines for veterinary uses discovered rights to any products for in the collaboration human uses discovered in the collaboration



Aridis Leadership on the Licensing Agreement

"This agreement represents a continuation in Aridis' expansion into the product discovery and development for viral pathogens, particularly those pathogens with pandemic potential. The licensing agreement with Kermode Biotechnologies presents another point of validation for our APEX antibody discovery platform," said, Vu Truong, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Aridis.

"As we have witnessed the global health and economic impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical we turn our attention towards other potential viruses that could reach pandemic levels. Given the potential for high morbidity and mortality associated with zoonotic viruses that cross over to the human population, we view this pivot as a natural segue for Aridis in our ongoing effort to stay ahead of emerging infectious diseases and protect the health of patients worldwide."

Kermode Leadership on the Licensing Agreement

Dan Chen, Founder and CEO of Kermode, stated, "As we work to identify viable targets for both vaccine and therapeutic candidates for ASFV and SIV, we believe that by leveraging Aridis' novel APEX discovery platform, we can reduce the time it takes to complete our discovery process and increase speed to market.

"Through our efforts, we seek to identify therapeutic solutions to the material impact that ASFV can have on the food sources for billions of people around the world, and avoiding the shocks to food supply that occurred in 2017. Concurrently, we recognize the possibility of zoonotic exposure of these viruses from animals to humans, which occurred with H1N1, H3N2 and H1N2 influenza viruses.

"This collaboration is another step towards helping us solve some of these difficult challenges and are delighted to be partnering with Aridis on this licensing agreement."

About APEXTM A potent monoclonal antibody pathogen discovery platform.

Aridis utilizes its APEX technology platform for the unbiased discovery of new and highly potent antibodies against pathogens, including COVID-19.

The APEX platform is comprised of a silicon wafer-based array of nanoliter sized tissue micro-culture wells that enable rapidRapid Pathogen screening of antibody secreting cells, enabling discovery ofIdentification potent antibodies against targets such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease.



APEX platform features CRISPR enabled activation of endogenous genetic control elements that dramatically increase the yield ofHigher Yield such therapeutic antibodies from manufacturing production cell lines.



APEX platform also features a proprietary production cell lineShortened that is designed to rapidly manufacture multiple monoclonalManufacturing antibody therapeutics at faster the manufacturing cycle timeCycle than currently available manufacturing technologies.