Dr. Philip Toleikis reports

SERNOVA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH COLLABORATION WITH ASTRAZENECA TO EVALUATE NOVEL POTENTIAL THERAPEUTIC CELL APPLICATIONS

Sernova Corp. has entered into a preclinical research collaboration with AstraZeneca to evaluate the use of Sernova's Cell Pouch system in combination with AstraZeneca's novel therapeutic cells.

"Sernova has developed a novel cell therapy approach for the potential treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes, hypothyroidism and hemophilia A," said Dr. Philip Toleikis, president and chief executive officer of Sernova. "By engrafting functional therapeutic cells within an implanted Cell Pouch, which naturally vascularizes with surrounding tissues, we create an environment for the production and release of absent or underexpressed hormones and proteins. We are pleased to be working with AstraZeneca in the preclinical assessment of its various proprietary therapeutic cells in combination with our Cell Pouch."

AstraZeneca is exploring the use of Sernova's Cell Pouch system as a potential platform for integration with its development of the next wave of innovative cell therapies for various indications. Under the terms of the collaboration, AstraZeneca will lead and completely finance the development of the cell technologies and preclinical activities in conjunction with Sernova. The discovery work is being financed and conducted at AstraZeneca. The preclinical research outcomes will determine the feasibility of potential therapeutic applications and subsequent product development activities between the two companies.

About Sernova Corp.

Sernova is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing regenerative medicine therapeutic technologies for chronic diseases, including insulin-dependent diabetes, thyroid disease and blood disorders, including hemophilia A. Sernova is currently focused on developing a functional cure for insulin-dependent diabetes with its lead asset, the Cell Pouch system, a novel implantable and scalable medical device with immune-protected therapeutic cells. The Cell Pouch on implantation forms a natural vascularized tissue environment in the body for long-term survival and function of therapeutic cells that release necessary proteins or factors missing from the body to treat chronic diseases. Sernova's Cell Pouch system has already shown it can potentially provide a functional cure to people with Type 1 diabetes in a continuing phase I/II clinical study at the University of Chicago. Sernova is also advancing a proprietary technology in collaboration with the University of Miami to cloak the therapeutic cells from the immune system attack with the goal to eliminate the need for chronic immunosuppressives. In May, 2022, Sernova and Evotec entered into a global strategic partnership to develop an implantable off-the-shelf iPSC-based (induced pluripotent stem cells) beta cell replacement therapy. This partnership provides Sernova an unlimited supply of insulin-producing cells to treat millions of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2). Sernova is also gearing up to be in the clinic in two additional programs that utilize its Cell Pouch system -- an implantable cell therapy for benign thyroid disease resulting from thyroid gland removal and an ex vivo lentiviral factor 8 gene therapy for hemophilia A.

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