Modus Therapeutics Appoints Key Scientific Advisors

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – 23 September 2021: Modus Therapeutics Holding AB (“Modus”), a company developing innovative treatments for patients with high unmet medical needs, welcomes a panel of key scientific advisors – Professor Eddie Weitzberg, Professor Lennart Lindbom and Professor Mats Wahlgren from the Karolinska Institutet – who will support the company’s future development strategy for sevuparin for sepsis/septic shock and other conditions where systemic inflammation is involved.

Lennart Lindbom is Professor of Physiology at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet. He is an expert in microvascular physiology and discovered the protective effects of heparinoids in systemic inflammation and performed landmark preclinical studies to show the benefit of sevuparin. Prof. Lindbom is also an expert in biomarkers in this field and identified leukocyte-derived heparin binding proteins (e.g. HBP) as inducers of vascular hyperpermeability (leaky blood vessels), an important feature in the pathology of systemic inflammation.

Eddie Weitzberg is Professor of Anesthesiology and Intensive care at Karolinska Institutet and Senior Consultant at the department of Perioperative Medicine and Intensive Care at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. He has a longstanding research interest in critical illness including sepsis. Dr Weitzberg was a co-founder of Aerocrine AB, which developed a unique method to diagnose and monitor asthma. He also spent several years as a member of the board at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES). 

Mats Wahlgren is Professor of Infectious Disease Control at Karolinska Institutet. He is a co-inventor of sevuparin and pioneered human studies in micro-vascular diseases. He has also explored the uses of heparinoids in diseases that do not rely on the anti-coagulant features of these compounds. Professor Wahlgren was a member of The Nobel Assembly and The Nobel Committee. He is a world-leading researcher in the malaria field having devoted more than 40 years to this area.

Sevuparin is a novel polysaccharide with the potential to break the molecular chain of events that lead to vascular damage and plasma leakage in sepsis/septic shock and other conditions where systemic inflammation is involved. It is believed that sevuparin achieves this by directly binding and neutralizing agents released from activated white blood cells that are known to threaten vascular integrity. 

John Öhd, CEO of Modus Therapeutics, commented: “The pioneering science that led to the discovery of sevuparin originated at the Karolinska Institutet, and we are delighted to welcome three of its highly acclaimed scientists as advisors to Modus. Their deep expertise will be invaluable as we move sevuparin forward into clinical development for sepsis/septic shock and other conditions where systemic inflammation is involved.”

***

For more information on Modus Therapeutics, please contact:

John Öhd, VD, Modus Therapeutics

Telefon: +46 (0) 70 766 80 97

E-post: john.ohd@modustx.com

Certified Adviser

Svensk Kapitalmarknadsgranskning AB

Telefon: +46 11 32 30 732

E-post: ca@skmg.se

About Modus Therapeutics and sevuparin

Modus Therapeutics is a Swedish biotechnology company headquartered in Stockholm that develops sevuparin with a focus on diseases with a high unmet medical need. The company's focus in the near future is to develop sevuparin for patients with sepsis / septic shock, which is a serious and often fatal condition. Modus Therapeutics is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth market (“MODTX”). More information is available at www.modustx.com

Sevuparin is a clinical stage, innovative proprietary polysaccharide drug with a multimodal mechanism of action, including anti-inflammatory, anti-adhesive, and anti-aggregate effects.  Sevuparin is a heparinoid with markedly attenuated anti-coagulation features that allows severalfold higher doses to be given, compared to regular heparinoids, without the associated risk for bleeding side-effects. Two routes of administration of sevuparin are currently being tested – an IV formulation for in-patient administration and a subcutaneous formulation that allows ambulatory and home care administration.