Frontier Medicines Corp.

September 16, 2024 SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – September 16, 2024 – Circle Pharma, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering and developing cell-permeable macrocycles as a new class of therapies, today announced two executive appointments as it continues to advance its MXMO macrocycle discovery platform and its oncology pipeline. Marie Evangelista, Ph.D., has been appointed Senior Vice President and Head of Cancer Biology, while Constantine Kreatsoulas, Ph.D., has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Head of Discovery Technology Sciences. These appointments align with Circle’s investments in its pipeline of macrocycle therapies, including its lead program, CID-078, currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial in solid tumors. “These two senior executive appointments deepen Circle’s drug discovery expertise and scientific leadership” said David J. Earp, JD, Ph.D., Circle’s president and CEO. “With Circle’s first oral macrocycle, CID-078, now in the clinic, we are keen to deploy our MXMO platform against a wide range of new targets as we drive to expand our pipeline. I look forward to working closely with Marie and Constantine as they lead our discovery teams to bring more first-in-class medicines to the clinic.” Dr. Evangelista has more than 18 years of experience in translational oncology and small molecule drug discovery, having successfully led programs from early discovery to clinical development. Prior to joining Circle, she spent 15 years at Genentech where her leadership was instrumental in advancing Genentech’s KRAS-targeting programs. Following Genentech, Dr. Evangelista held senior leadership roles at Frontier Medicines and most recently at Recursion. Dr. Evangelista holds a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. “I’m excited to join Circle at this important juncture, where its innovative macrocycle platform is translating into clinical progress,” said Dr. Evangelista. “I look forward to contributing to the development of transformative therapies for patients.” Dr. Kreatsoulas has played a pivotal role at Circle Pharma since joining in 2021, overseeing the development of the MXMO platform and contributing to the advancement of CID-078 into the clinic. Before joining Circle Pharma, he held leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck & Co., and Bristol-Myers Squibb, with expertise in molecular design, machine learning, and computational toxicology. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University and a master’s degree in Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance from Temple University. “Being a part of Circle’s evolution to a clinical-stage company has been incredibly rewarding,” said Dr. Kreatsoulas. “I am very excited to step into the role of Head of Discovery Technology Sciences as we continue to advance our ground-breaking macrocycle technologies.” About Circle Pharma, Inc. South San Francisco-based Circle Pharma is advancing the discovery and development of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can be delivered by multiple routes, including oral administration. Circle Pharma’s MXMO™ platform combines structure-based rational drug design and advanced synthetic chemistry to develop a new generation of macrocycle therapies for challenging targets to address unmet clinical needs. Circle Pharma is focusing its development efforts on cyclins, which are master regulators of the machinery that controls the progression of cells through the cell cycle and are key drivers in many cancers. The company’s lead candidate, CID-078, is currently in clinical trials as part of a growing pipeline of novel macrocycle therapeutics. To learn more about Circle Pharma, please visit www.circlepharma.com. Media Contact: Roslyn Patterson Director of Corporate CommunicationsPhone: 650.825.4099Email:roslyn.patterson@circlepharma.com This site is intended for US residents only. © 2024 Circle Pharma. All Rights Reserved.

BOSTON and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Frontier Medicines Corporation (“Frontier” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage precision medicine company seeking to unlock the proteome to advance transformational therapies against otherwise undruggable disease-causing targets, today announced the advancement of lead candidates for further optimization in an AbbVie partnered program targeting a key transcription factor for cancer cell survival, triggering an accompanying milestone payment. “By applying the Frontier™ Platform, our team was able to target a historically intractable transcription factor that has implications across oncology treatment,” said Chris Varma, Ph.D., chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Frontier Medicines. “This progress validates our platform’s ability to unlock undruggable targets for small molecule treatment and we look forward to further advances in our collaboration with AbbVie.” Started in 2020, the objective of the global partnership is to discover, develop, and commercialize a pipeline of innovative small molecule therapeutics against certain high-interest, difficult-to-drug protein targets. About Frontier and AbbVie Partnership Under the partnership, the companies will collaborate on the research and pre-clinical development of programs directed to novel E3 ligases, and certain immunology and oncology targets. AbbVie will reimburse Frontier's R&D costs through defined stages of pre-clinical development. Upon successful completion, AbbVie will assume full responsibility for global development and commercialization activities and costs for the programs. Frontier will retain an option to share development activities and expenses for certain oncology programs through the completion of Phase 2. Frontier will be eligible to receive success-based development and commercial milestone payments that could potentially exceed $1 billion, in addition to royalty payments on commercialized products. AbbVie retains the right to expand the collaboration in the future by exercising options to a defined number of additional targets. The collaboration excludes all of Frontier's internal programs for which Frontier retains exclusive global rights. About Frontier Medicines Frontier Medicines is a clinical stage precision medicine company pioneering groundbreaking medicines to transform treatment for genetically-defined patient populations, starting with oncology and immunology. Our proprietary chemoproteomics powered drug discovery engine, the Frontier™ Platform, leverages covalent chemistry and machine learning to unlock hard-to-treat disease causing proteins for drug development. Today, we are advancing a diversified pipeline of wholly-owned precision medicines against the most important drivers of cancer and high-value immunology programs. Our lead candidate, FMC-376, is a dual inhibitor of ON+OFF KRASG12C. FMC-376 is a potential best-in-class therapy designed to completely block both forms of the KRAS mutation to overcome the lack of response and resistance seen with single-acting KRASG12C inhibitors. For more information, please visit www.frontiermeds.com. Follow Frontier on LinkedIn. Frontier Medicines Contact:Victoria FortSVP, Strategy and Corporate AffairsVictoria.Fort@frontiermeds.com202.361.0445

Dive Brief:An experimental cancer drug developed by Revolution Medicines shrank pancreatic tumors in about one-quarter of participants who had been followed for at least five months after treatment in an early-stage study.The update, which Revolution Medicines shared with investors Monday, is the latest cut of data from the trial, which has tested the companys targeted therapy RMC-6236 in people with lung or pancreatic tumors that are driven to growth by mutations in a cancer gene known as RAS.Among study participants who previously received one or more prior drug regimens for their cancer and have a KRAS G12X mutation, treatment with RMC-6236 led to a median progression-free survival of 8.1 months. Revolution claims this is higher than typically seen with other regimens and is advancing its drug into a Phase 3 pancreatic cancer trial later this year.Dive Insight:Revolution Medicines is one of a handful of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms looking to exploit drug research advances that have made RAS mutations easier to target. Mutations in the gene are frequently a trigger for cancers of the lungs, pancreas or colon.Pancreatic cancer, which is considered among the hardest tumor types to treat, is particularly dependent on RAS mutations, according to Revolution Medicines. Currently, however, standard treatment is chemotherapy-based regimens that have limited effectiveness.RMC-6236 is designed to inhibit RAS signaling by binding to the mutant protein in its on state. The companys first-in-human study, which has enrolled nearly 400 patients with RAS-driven solid tumors, has so far evaluated nine different doses of the drug. Results were last presented in October.Mondays data are from 127 study participants with pancreatic ductal carcinoma who received between 160 milligram and 300 milligram doses of RMC-6236. Nearly all experienced side effects, most commonly rash, diarrhea, mouth sores and vomiting. Those adverse events were considered severe or medically significant in 22% of participants and in 28% required dose modification.Median progression-free survival, a measure of how long treatment staves off disease progression or death, was a median of 8.1 months in people who specifically have the KRAS G12X mutation, and 7.6 months in those who broadly have RAS mutant tumors, including those with KRAS G12X changes. According to Revolution Medicines, the benchmark median progression-free survival for chemotherapy regimens in this setting ranges from 2 months to 3.5 months.Among participants who had at least three prior treatment regimens, the median progression-free survival was 4.2 months.Revolution Medicines said it plans to advance the 300 milligram dose of RMC-6236 into a Phase 3 study comparing it to investigators choice of standard chemo among previously treated people with pancreatic cancer. The company anticipates starting the study in the second half of the year, with progression-free survival data coming in the first half of 2026.Along with Revolution Medicines, a range of other companies are advancing RAS inhibitors in solid tumors, including BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, Frontier Medicines and Eli Lilly. Two drugs specifically targeted to KRAS mutations, Amgens Lumakras and Bristol Myers Squibbs Krazati, are currently approved for lung cancer.Revolution Medicines recently absorbed EQRx via an all-stock deal, swelling its cash balance to $1.7 billion as of March 31. Shares in the company fell in early Monday morning trading before bouncing back to trade up by more than 2%. '