Recursion Signs Global Licensing Agreement with the Ohio State Innovation Foundation to Develop REC-2282 to Treat Neurofibromatosis Type 2

SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Recursion,
a clinical-stage biotechnology company combining artificial intelligence
(AI), experimental biology, and automation to discover and develop drugs
at scale, today announced it has entered into a licensing agreement with
the Ohio State Innovation Foundation (OSIF), the technology transfer
function of The Ohio State University, gaining rights to OSU-HDAC42,
a clinical-stage compound that will be developed by Recursion as
REC-2282. Recursion plans to develop the compound in neurofibromatosis
type 2 (NF2), a devastating rare tumor syndrome.

“We leveraged our unique discovery platform to identify potential
therapies for NF2 from among known compounds with the potential for
accelerated development,” said Chris Gibson, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO
of Recursion. “We found a strong signal in our data for REC-2282 as a
potential treatment for NF2, and upon further diligence, discovered the
drug was already being pursued in the treatment of this disease. The
universe of experimental treatments is vast, but the data arbitrage
generated empirically on our platform gave us the confidence to move
forward quickly.”

Under the terms of this agreement, Recursion obtains exclusive worldwide
rights to develop and commercialize REC-2282. Full financial terms have
not been disclosed.

“Adding REC-2282 to our clinical pipeline and driving to a rapid
determination of its efficacy and safety for NF2 patients marks another
important step in Recursion’s growth and more importantly may offer a
better treatment option for this terribly underserved patient
population,” said Tim Considine, Senior Vice President, Strategic
Development at Recursion. “We are excited to build on existing clinical
data to advance this program to human proof of concept in NF2 as rapidly
as possible.”

Last year, Recursion announced that its Investigational New Drug (IND)
application for another disease of unmet need, cerebral cavernous
malformation (CCM), was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), and that program is currently enrolling subjects in Phase
1.

About Neurofibromatosis Type 2

Neurofibromatosis type 2 is a genetic condition most commonly associated
with bilateral vestibular schwannomas, also known as acoustic neuromas.
These are benign (noncancerous) tumors that occur on the nerves
responsible for balance and hearing in the inner ear. Patients can also
have meningiomas, a slow-growing tumor that usually develops on the
surface of the brain. Although these tumors are benign, they can cause
loss of hearing and balance problems, and in severe cases can be life
threatening. It is estimated that about one in 40,000 people has NF2.
Approximately 50% of people with NF2 do not have a family history of the
condition. Current treatment involves surgical removal of the tumors,
which provides temporary relief of symptoms but bears a significant risk
of hearing loss and other complications.

About REC-2282 (OSU-HDAC42)

REC-2282 is a pan-histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor. There are
multiple lines of evidence that REC-2282 exhibits both
histone-independent and acetylation-independent mechanisms, at both
epigenetic and cellular levels. The compound was previously in clinical
development by Arno Therapeutics (as AR-42) for various solid and liquid
tumors. Exploratory investigator-initiated studies have been conducted
in patients with vestibular schwannomas and meningiomas. Rights to the
compound were returned to OSIF in November 2017.

About Recursion

Recursion is a clinical-stage biotechnology company combining
experimental biology and automation with artificial intelligence methods
in a massively parallel system to efficiently discover potential drugs
for diverse indications, including genetic disease, inflammation,
immunology, and infectious disease. Recursion applies causative
perturbations to human cells to generate disease models and associated
microscopic image data. Recursion’s rich, relatable database of more
than a petabyte of biological images generated in-house on the company’s
robotics platform enables advanced computer vision and machine learning
approaches to reveal drug candidates, mechanisms of action, and
potential toxicity, with the eventual goal of decoding biology and
advancing new therapeutics to radically improve lives. Recursion is
headquartered in Salt Lake City. Learn more at https://recursionpharma.com/,
or connect on Twitter,
Facebook,
and LinkedIn.

Contacts

Media Contacts:
Ron Alfa, MD, Ph.D.
Recursion
press@recursionpharma.com

Jessica Yingling, Ph.D.
Little Dog Communications
+1-858-344-8091
jessica@litldog.com