Gannex Appoints Former Takeda Head of Liver Disease Clinical Development Melissa Palmer, MD as Chief Medical Officer

SHANGHAI, Nov. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gannex, a wholly owned company of Ascletis Pharma Inc. (HKEX:1672) and fully dedicated to the R&D and commercialization of new drugs in the field of NASH, announced today that Melissa Palmer, MD, an internationally renowned Hepatologist, will join the Company as Chief Medical Officer, effective December 1, 2020.

Prior to joining Gannex, Dr. Palmer was Head of Liver Disease Clinical Development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. She has also held senior leadership positions at Shire Pharmaceuticals and Kadmon Corporation, where she was in charge of the global development of NASH and other liver disease programs. Prior to joining industry, she was clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center and director of Hepatology at NYU Plainview, NY. Since 1991, Dr. Palmer served as a Hepatology consultant to more than 40 biotech and pharmaceutical companies and was a primary investigator on numerous clinical trials in liver disease.

Dr. Palmer has authored over 100 publications, abstracts, articles, and book chapters, in addition to a best-selling book on liver disease "Dr. Melissa Palmer's Guide to Hepatitis and Liver Disease". She trained in Hepatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she also received her M.D. degree. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University in New York City.

"As we continue to make breakthroughs in the clinical development of NASH, I am delighted to have Dr. Palmer join us at this pivotal time," said Dr. Jinzi J. Wu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ascletis. "I am confident that Dr. Palmer's exceptional skills and expertise will be a great asset as the Company advances its clinical development programs on a global basis."

"I am excited about joining Gannex which has three clinical stage assets in NASH, " said Dr. Palmer, "with impressive phase 2 data from the ASC40 trial in the US and recent US IND approval of ASC42, I am looking forward to working with the Company's talented team and accelerating clinical development of these drug candidates for NASH patients globally."

About Ascletis

Ascletis is an innovative R&D driven biotech and listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange (1672.HK). Ascletis is committed to developing and commercializing innovative drugs in the areas of viral hepatitis, NASH and HIV/AIDS for unmet medical needs in China and globally. Led by a management team with deep expertise and a proven track record, Ascletis has developed into a fully integrated platform covering the entire value chain from discovery and development to manufacturing and commercialization.

Ascletis has three marketed products and thirteen R&D pipeline drug candidates or combination therapies (nine of them developed in-house). 1. Viral hepatitis: (i) Hepatitis B: focus on breakthrough therapies for HBV clinical cure with subcutaneously injected PD-L1 antibody - ASC22 and Pegasys® as cornerstone drugs. (ii) Hepatitis C: successfully launched all oral regimen of Asclevir® and Ganovo® combination (RDV/DNV regimen); and ASC18 fixed dose combination (FDC) is an upgraded version of RDV/DNV regimen with bridging study finished. 2. NASH: Gannex, a wholly-owned company of Ascletis, is fully dedicated to the R&D and commercialization of new drugs in the field of NASH. Gannex has three clinical stage drug candidates against three different targets – FASN, THR-beta and FXR, and three pre-clinical stage combination therapies. 3. HIV/AIDS: ASC09F is a FDC treatment of HIV targeting protease. The clinical trial application of ASC09F has been approved. For more information, please visit www.ascletis.com.

SOURCE Ascletis Pharma Inc.