Positive Data Presented on Pieris Pharmaceuticals' Inhaled Asthma Program at ERS and Company Strengthens Management Team

Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PIRS, a biotechnology company advancing novel biotherapeutics through its proprietary Anticalin® technology platform, today announced that Professor Gary Anderson, PhD, FThorSoc, FERS, and Director of the Lung Health Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, presented preclinical data on PRS-060, the Company's inhaled IL4Ra antagonist, at a podium presentation during the 2015 annual meeting for the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Company also announced a key addition to its management team with the appointment of Mary Fitzgerald, PhD, as Vice President of Respiratory Medicine. In the presentation, entitled "Discovery of PRS-060, an inhalable CD123/IL4Ra/TH2 blocking anti-asthmatic anticalin protein re-engineered from endogenous lipocalin-1," Professor Anderson provided an overview of the molecular strategy used to re-engineer endogenous human lipocalin-1 into an antagonist of IL4Ra with high affinity, and presented key data demonstrating concentration-dependent antagonism of IL4Ra-mediated signaling, very low in-silico predicted immunogenicity, and technical feasibility for PRS-060 inhalation as a wet aerosol or dry powder. Further, pharmacokinetic analysis demonstrated rapid renal clearance and absence of accumulation, together with allometric dose scaling estimates for inhalation. Dr. Anderson concluded, "these data demonstrate that PRS-060 has a pharmacological and galenical profile well suited for development as a first-in-class inhaled biological for T2-high severe asthma which is driven by the IL4Ra pathway." "Pieris remains committed to developing highly differentiated next generation therapeutic proteins," commented Stephen Yoder, Pieris President and CEO. "The progress with PRS-060, as reported by Professor Anderson, and the addition of Dr. Fitzgerald to our management team, demonstrate both our commitment to development of novel therapeutics for serious illnesses, as well as our ability to attract industry leadership of the highest caliber to advance our pipeline." Mary Fitzgerald brings to Pieris more than thirty years of respiratory drug development. Prior to joining Pieris Dr. Fitzgerald held senior positions at Argenta Discovery and Pulmagen Therapeutics, where she was responsible for clinical development of inhaled and oral drug candidates for both COPD and asthma. Previously, she was employed at Bayer Healthcare for 14 years, most recently as Head of Pharmacology. "I'm excited to lead the development of PRS-060 through IND-enabling studies and into the clinic," noted Dr. Fitzgerald. "As an inhaled targeted therapeutic protein, PRS-060 has the potential to bring a disease-modifying drug to uncontrolled asthma patients where there is a significant unmet medical need, which is an approach that that inhaled or oral small molecules have not been able to address. Importantly, we believe PRS-060 will also deliver a more convenient and effective approach than systemic biologics."