RES-010

TORINO, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Resalis Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Almut Nitsche, PhD, as its Chief Medical & Development Officer (CMDO). Dr. Nitsche brings with her over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in drug development and project management, at companies including Sanofi and Aventis. In her role at Resalis, she will spearhead the clinical development of RES-010, a non-coding RNA drug candidate designed to address obesity. “Almut’s extensive track record in new product development and healthcare solutions, coupled with her deep expertise in metabolic disease and diabetes, positions her as an important addition to our team to guide our clinical development strategy. She joins us at the right moment as we near completion of our preclinical development for RES-010 and move toward our first-in-human trial,” said Alessandro Toniolo, CEO of Resalis Therapeutics. “Resalis' RES-010 candidate, developed based on cutting-edge metabolic disease insights, offers a unique opportunity to develop an orthogonal approach to currently marketed obesity treatments. I look forward to joining the Resalis team as we advance into the Phase 1 trial and seek to establish initial clinical proof of concept for RES-010,” added Almut Nitsche, CMDO of Resalis Therapeutics. Dr. Almut Nitsche is a seasoned expert in pharmaceutical research and development. Prior to joining Resalis, she served as a consultant to Proxidrugs and worked for over 17 years at Sanofi, holding key positions such as Project Director for Early Development and Project Director for R&D in the Diabetes Division. Before this, she held positions at Aventis (acquired by Sanofi) and Hoechst Marion Roussel Genomic Center. As part of her commitment to therapeutic innovation in the metabolic disease space, Dr. Nitsche has also served as a Management Board Member at INNODIA, an international non-profit organization accelerating the development of new cures for type 1 diabetes. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. About Resalis Therapeutics Resalis Therapeutics’ transformative metabolic disease approach targets a master regulator of multiple pathways underlying obesity and fatty liver disease. The company is applying its profound understanding of the non-coding RNA drug modality and lipid metabolism to develop its lead program, RES-010, into a safe and convenient treatment providing disease-modifying therapeutic impact including durable weight loss and reduction of hepatic steatosis. Building on robust preclinical evidence, Resalis will rapidly bring RES-010 into clinical trials for a range of metabolic disorders. For more information visit our website . View source version on businesswire.com: Contacts Contact Resalis Alessandro Toniolo, CEO +393386092544 alessandro.toniolo@resalistherapeutics.com Media Relations Trophic Communications Gretchen Schweitzer or Dr. Charlotte Spitz Trophic Communications +49 171 351 2733 resalis@trophic.eu Source: Resalis Therapeutics View this news release online at:

While GLP-1 receptor agonists continue to post impressive weight loss data – and attract a slew of high-priced deals – the drugs face several shortcomings in obesity, including the duration of effect after treatment ends. Resalis is aiming to fill those holes with a complementary therapy: an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) that targets miR-22, which controls multiple pathways associated with the metabolic root of obesity.The company raised €10 million in a series A Thursday that will enable the start and finish of a Phase I trial of its miR-22 targeting ASO, RES-010. The round, which comes a year after Resalis’ initial €10 million seed funding, was led by Sunstone Life Science Ventures with participation from existing investors including Claris Ventures and angel investors. One target, many pathwaysResalis’ strategy for a disease-modifying obesity therapeutic hinges on one microRNA (miRNA). Riccardo Panella began investigating miR-22 as a postdoc at Harvard Medical School and discovered its importance in multiple metabolic pathways – and its potential as a therapeutic target for obesity. Soon after, he started collaborating with Sakari Kauppinen to further explore the biology of miR-22, thanks to a grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and they designed ASOs that could inhibit the target. After settling on a lead compound and amassing pharmacological and animal model data, the pair founded Resalis in 2021. Panella serves as chief scientific officer; Kauppinen is the company’s chief technology officer. “Because they’re very short, one miRNA can interact with a lot of different targets, depending on what is expressed at that moment in a cell or tissue,” Panella told FirstWord. Some of the key targets of miR-22 the Resalis team has identified include FGF21, ACLY, PGC-1α, and SIRT1 – all which have key roles in metabolic pathways.The ability to affect multiple targets is especially attractive in obesity because it’s a complex, multi-tissue, multi-pathway disease. With RES-010, “We found a way to hit multiple birds with one stone,” Panella said. “By silencing miR-22, we can deregulate multiple players at the same time that are important for driving the obesity phenotype.”Getting at the metabolic rootThe end goal is to rewire our cellular metabolism – making it harder for the body to store fat, and promoting energy consumption, Resalis CEO Alessandro Toniolo said. Mice data hints at what the result of such rewiring could look like in humans. In a study published last year in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Panella and Kauppinen found that when two groups of mice were fed high-fat diets, those with a miR-22 knockout gained significantly less weight than those with the target intact. Plus, another mice study showed that miR-22 inhibition only triggered fat loss, not muscle – another drawback to GLP-1 receptor agonism. Toniolo said the team found that, unless the mice had an excess of fat, they did not lose body weight. Because GLP-1 receptor agonists are appetite suppressors, patients often lose both fat and muscle mass, which can be unhealthy for the elderly. Another shortcoming facing the modality is that when patients stop taking the drugs, they often regain weight.However, Toniology believes pairing a GLP-1 receptor agonist with RES-010 for a course of treatment could resolve these issues. He doesn’t see the ASO replacing GLP-1s, but rather as a complementary therapy. Resalis plans to start a Phase I dose-ascending study of RES-010 in Europe this half.