Exhibit 99.1
Catalyst Biosciences Announces Change in Corporate Strategy
Reports Third Quarter 2021 Operating & Financial Results
Company to discontinue MarzAA development; focus on developing its complement portfolio
Management to host a call today at 8:30 am ET
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – November 12, 2021 – Catalyst Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBIO) today announced a strategic decision to halt the clinical development of MarzAA, report data to date, and seek a buyer for its hemophilia assets. Catalyst plans to focus its resources on its complement therapeutics and protease medicines platform. The Company also reported its operating and financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021.
“We have made a strategic decision to stop the clinical development of MarzAA (engineered FVIIa) and focus solely on our complement programs and protease medicines platform. Based on several factors including a recently updated feasibility assessment, we determined that we cannot continue to develop MarzAA through completion of the ongoing trials. Enrollment in our MarzAA clinical trials has been adversely impacted by several factors, including pandemic-related logistical challenges, competition for subjects, and increasing availability of prophylaxis therapy globally. Given these factors, it is no longer feasible for us to deliver topline data in 2022. We will report on the data obtained in the Crimson-1 trial to date showing that we have successfully treated bleeds with subcutaneous (SQ) MarzAA and have not observed any treatment-related adverse or thrombotic events,” said Nassim Usman, Ph.D., chief executive of Catalyst Biosciences.
Dr. Usman continued: “We are exploring opportunities to license or sell our MarzAA and DalcA (engineered FIX) portfolios and will donate any standard-of-care to the centers where patients are enrolled. Halting development of MarzAA will allow us to reduce our burn rate by approximately 40% and focus our investment on our highly promising complement therapeutics and protease medicines platform. We want to thank our study subjects, clinical trial investigators and site staff, employees, and investors for their partnership and commitment to the MarzAA programs over the last several years.”
“Candidates from our protease platform offer a differentiated approach to complement regulation by rapidly engaging and degrading high abundancy targets in a way antibodies and small molecule inhibitors cannot. We believe that investing in novel solutions for complement-mediated disease will open opportunities in multiple settings ranging from ultra-orphan to large markets with significant unmet needs, including nephrology, inflammation and ophthalmology. We will advance the clinical development of CB 4332, an SQ-dosed enhanced complement Factor I (CFI), as swiftly as possible and continue to generate development candidates from our protease platform that we will either license out or develop on our own. We believe that the complement therapeutics market holds tremendous potential and that investing our resources in these programs is the optimal strategy going forward,” concluded Dr. Usman.
Complement Program Updates
| • | | Presented positive preclinical data on CB 4332 at the International Conference on Complement Therapeutics (ICCT) in September 2021, indicating that CB 4332 has the potential to be an effective, longer-acting SQ therapy in CFI-deficient patients by replacing the underlying, deficient protease. |
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