Shield Therapeutics PLC Appointment of Chairman (8330N)

TIDMSTX

RNS Number : 8330N

Shield Therapeutics PLC

26 May 2020

Shield Therapeutics plc

("Shield" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Appointment of Chairman

London, UK, 26 May 2020: Shield Therapeutics plc (LSE: STX), a commercial stage, pharmaceutical company with a focus on addressing iron deficiency with its lead product Feraccru (R) /Accrufer (R) (ferric maltol), announces the appointment of Hans Peter Hasler as non-executive Chairman of the Company with effect from the Annual General Meeting ('AGM') on 18 June 2020.

As announced on 21 May 2020, James Karis, the Company's current Chairman, informed the Company that he would not seek re-election and would be stepping down at the AGM on 18 June 2020. Hans Peter Hasler has therefore been appointed with effect from the AGM. Hans Peter joined Shield's Board of Directors in July 2018 and has served as Chairman of the Nomination Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. Hans Peter has prior executive experience including as Chief Operating Officer at both Elan Corporation and Biogen Inc. as well as Chief Marketing Officer of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Radnor, PA. He is non-executive Chairman of the Board of HBM Healthcare Investments AG, Zug/Switzerland and a non-executive director of Minerva Neuroscience Inc., Boston.

Hans Peter Hasler said: "I am delighted to have been appointed as Chairman of Shield at a critical time for the Group. Feraccru(R)/ Accrufer(R) is an excellent product with enormous potential and I look forward to continuing to help the Group find ways of making it available to the widest possible number of patients and to translating that into value for shareholders. I also look forward to working with the rest of the Board and the management team in these endeavours."

Tim Watts, CEO of Shield Therapeutics, said: "I am very pleased to see Hans Peter appointed as our Chairman. I have worked increasingly closely with Hans Peter over the last two years and value his experience and insights and the support he has given me personally."

For further information please contact:

 
 Shield Therapeutics plc                             www.shieldtherapeutics.com 
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About Shield Therapeutics plc

Shield is a de-risked, commercial stage, specialty pharmaceutical company delivering innovative pharmaceuticals to address patients' unmet medical needs. The Company's clear purpose is to develop products that help patients become people again, enabling them to enjoy the things that make a difference in their everyday lives . The Group's lead product, Feraccru (R) / Accrufer (R) has exclusive IP rights until the mid-2030s and is approved for the treatment of iron deficiency with or without anaemia in adults in the European Union, the United States and Switzerland. In Europe it is marketed as Feraccru (R) with commercialisation led by Norgine BV and in the USA the product will be marketed as Accrufer (R) with Shield currently in the process of selecting a commercialisation partner. Shield also has an exclusive licence agreement with Beijing Aosaikang Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd for the development and commercialisation of Feraccru(R)/Accrufer(R) in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. For more information please visit www.shieldtherapeutics.com

About Feraccru(R)/Accrufer(R)

Feraccru (R) /Accrufer(R) is a novel, stable, non-salt based oral therapy for adults with iron deficiency with or without anaemia that has been shown to be an efficacious and well-tolerated therapy in a range of controlled phase 3 trials, and offers a compelling alternative to IV iron for those patients unable to tolerate salt-based oral iron therapies and wish to avoid the complexities of infusion-based iron therapies.

When salt-based oral iron therapies are ingested they can cause a range of mild-to-severe gastrointestinal tract (GI) adverse events, including nausea, bloating and constipation through the release and subsequent reactivity of free iron in the GI tract, leading to poor tolerability, reduced patient compliance and ultimately treatment failure. Feraccru (R) /Accrufer(R) is not an iron salt and, as a result, it does not routinely cause the same treatment-limiting intolerance issues of salt-based iron therapies, whilst the iron from the ferric maltol molecule can be readily absorbed.

Prior to Feraccru (R) /Accrufer(R) , IV iron therapies were the only realistic alternative treatment option for iron deficient patients with or without anaemia intolerant of or unwilling to be treated salt-based oral iron therapies. However, use of such an invasive, costly, inconvenient and complex to administer treatment option, which is associated with potentially life-threatening and spontaneous hypersensitivity reactions, means there remains a clear unmet medical need for these patients to have access to an effective therapy that is well tolerated, convenient and does not require hospital-based administration. Feraccru (R) /Accrufer(R) meets those requirements.

About Iron Deficiency

The WHO states that iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world. As well as affecting a large number of women and children in non-industrialized countries, it is the only nutrient deficiency which is also significantly prevalent in virtually all industrialised nations. There are no current global figures for iron deficiency but, using anaemia as an indirect indicator, it can be estimated that most preschool children and pregnant women in non-industrialised countries, together with at least 30-40% in industrialized countries, are iron deficient.

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May 26, 2020 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)