MILAN, June 20, 2017 – IRBM announced today that a scientific consortium led by its subsidiary Promidis received a 5.6 million euro grant from the Italian region of Lombardy to discover and develop innovative cures for chronic hepatitis B, a disease which still affects a significant portion of the world population, despite the availability of a vaccine. Chronic hepatitis B is a significant burden on national health systems, and can lead to severe complications, especially in children.

While current medications for chronic hepatitis B focus on reducing the likelihood of severe damage over time, Promidis and the other partners in the consortium are expected to combine their expertise and capabilities to identify and develop novel approaches with the potential to fully eradicate the disease from individual patients. The consortium includes both public universities as well as leading industry partners.

Piero Di Lorenzo, President and CEO of Promidis’s parent company, IRBM, said: “The awarding of this grant to the consortium led by Promidis has been one of my proudest moments at the IRBM group. Together, we have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. I am elated to think that the agreement we signed today not only reinforces Italian excellence in scientific research, but more importantly, that it might finally bring hope to the millions of people living today with this terrible disease.”

About Promidis: Promidis is a privately held company, and part of the IRBM Group. The Company focuses on the identification of innovative drugs in high unmet medical need areas, and assists third parties with a wide spectrum of process chemistry capabilities. Promidis was established in 2013 within the IRBM Science Park in Pomezia, Rome, Italy, and then relocated in November 2015 to the San Raffaele Hospital Science Park (SRSI), in Milan, Italy.