Faron receives €2.1 million funding from Business Finland for Traumakine manufacturing

TURKU – FINLAND – Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy (AIM: FARN, First North: FARON), the clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, today announces plans to initiate a new state of the art process for the manufacturing of interferon (IFN) beta-1a. To support this, Faron has received a €2,100,000 low interest rate loan from Business Finland, the governmental innovation financing agency of Finland (“Loan”). The Loan funds will be used to develop and select a new cell line that can be used for future commercial scale production of Faron’s human IFN beta-1a.

Dr. Markku Jalkanen, Faron's CEO, said: “This is a very important initiative backed by the Finnish Government. We have a good existing stock of IFN beta-1a, but given the on-going clinical trials (REMAP-CAP and The WHO’s Solidarity Trial) and the potential for increasing future demand of IFN beta-1a for COVID-19 and other viral infections like influenza  we need to begin up-scaling our manufacturing capacity.”

The Loan is for a period of 7 years with Loan repayment only commencing after 3 years. Interest is three percentage points below the Finish base rate of interest, subject to a minimum rate of 1 percent.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ("MAR").

About Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Faron (AIM: FARN, First North: FARON) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for medical conditions with significant unmet needs. The Company currently has a pipeline based on the receptors involved in regulation of immune response in oncology and organ damage. Clevegen, its precision immunotherapy, is a novel anti-Clever-1 antibody with the ability to switch immune suppression to immune activation in various conditions, with potential across oncology, infectious disease and vaccine development. Currently in phase I/II clinical development as a novel macrophage checkpoint immunotherapy for patients with untreatable solid tumours, Clevegen has potential as a single-agent therapy or in combination with other standard treatments including immune checkpoint molecules. Traumakine, the Company’s pipeline candidate to prevent vascular leakage and organ failures, has completed a phase III clinical trial in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Plans for its future development are being finalised to avoid interfering steroid use together with Traumakine. Faron is based in Turku, Finland. Further information is available at www.faron.com