SWITZERLAND, FRIDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2020 10:50 PM CET

Demiurge is responding to the global outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) through the appropriate use of our AI platform of discovering novel therapeutic solutions and predicting clinical trial outcomes. We are conducting deep analyses of published studies and clinical data on COVID-19 against our precise broad-spectrum virology models.

It is paramount to develop effective treatments for critically ill patients because COVID-19 has higher mortality rate of critically ill patients than SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

It is equally important to develop scalable treatments that are cost-effective and globally available so as to reduce the mortality rate of COVID-19 in various countries of different infection control capabilities.

We hereby officially announce the discovery of the following scalable effective candidate treatments for reducing the mortality rate of critically ill COVID-19 patients worldwide:

• The combination of topoisomerase I inhibitors and topoisomerase II inhibitors could potentially be an exceptionally effective treatment strategy to protect critically ill patients from death caused by COVID-19-specific cytokine storm and comorbidities including nosocomial infections and sepsis.

• Topoisomerase I inhibitors have been shown to suppress virus-replication-induced host immunity response in vitro, and topoisomerase II inhibitors have been shown to suppress virus replication in vitro.

• The optimal treatment sequence for COVID-19 is topoisomerase I inhibitors followed by topoisomerase II inhibitors because cytokine storm attenuation by topoisomerase I inhibitors would synergistically boost virus yield reduction by topoisomerase II inhibitors.  

• Both topoisomerase I inhibitors and topoisomerase II inhibitors have been approved and marketed for decades as effective and safe chemotherapy medications used for anticancer treatments all over the world.

• The combination of irinotecan (a topoisomerase I inhibitor) and etoposide (a topoisomerase II inhibitor) has been studied in human clinical trials as a treatment for lung cancers and exhibited feasible toxicity profiles.

• The combination of irinotecan and etoposide could be a globally scalable effective treatment for critically ill COVID-19 patients because both irinotecan and etoposide are available in more than 40 countries and they are on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines that are the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.

• The combination of irinotecan and etoposide may be suitable for off-label use for critically ill COVID-19 patients for whom there isn’t any specialized effective treatment available.

In endemic/pandemic settings, public interest in treatment availability and commercial interest in marketing exclusivity are usually misaligned, but we have no doubt that public interest must be prioritized because lives matter above all else.

We have thus chosen to announce those discoveries to the public first without any delay in either applying for patent protection in secret or working with biopharmaceutical companies in private, so as to waive commercial interests once for all to speed up cross-border concerted efforts to test the efficacy of the irinotecan+etoposide combination therapy for the benefits of millions of families that have been affected by COVID-19.

About Demiurge Technologies

Demiurge Technologies is a research-based AI-biopharmaceutical company that transforms publicly available life science data into precise disease models in areas with unmet medical needs. The company pioneers a self-correcting scientific approach that validates disease models with the accuracy of AI-based predictions of phase 3 clinical trial outcomes. The company also pioneers a self-sustaining business that commercializes disease models by accelerating the AI-based discovery and development of innovative medicines. Demiurge started in 2016 with headquarters in Switzerland.

AI has been an emerging powerful approach to deeper disease understanding and faster drug discovery, yet it must be put to the most rigorous test to prove its worth under public scrutiny. Demiurge has predicted the outcomes of more than 90 phase 3 clinical trials across multiple therapeutic areas and achieved more than 80% accuracy. Furthermore, we have been inviting the public to witness our future predictions of clinical trial outcomes on Twitter (@DemiurgeTech).

Therefore, we officially put forward our AI-based discovery of irinotecan+etoposide, a scalable effective candidate treatment for reducing the mortality rate of critically ill COVID-19 patients, as a scientific hypothesis only and invite the world to validate whether irinotecan+etoposide could bring clinical benefit to critically ill patients via properly administered off-label use for COVID-19. Demiurge urges everyone to refrain from believing in the efficacy and safety of irinotecan+etoposide for COVID-19 before any clinical data come in.

Disclaimers

This material is intended for information purposes only and is provided without any warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results. Figures and graphs in this presentation are for illustration only and are may not match the actual scale. This presentation contains certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as ‘believes’, ‘expects’, ‘anticipates’, ‘projects’, ‘intends’, ‘should’,‘seeks’, ‘estimates’, ‘future’ or similar expressions or by discussion of, among other things, strategy, goals, plans or intentions. Various factors may cause actual results to differ materially in the future from those reflected in forward-looking statements contained in this presentation, among others: 1 pricing and product initiatives of competitors; 2 legislative and regulatory developments and economic conditions; 3 delay or inability in obtaining regulatory approvals or bringing products to market; 4 fluctuations in currency exchange rates and general financial market conditions; 5 uncertainties in the discovery, development or marketing of new products or new uses of existing products, including without limitation negative results of clinical trials or research projects, unexpected side-effects of pipeline or marketed products; 6 increased government pricing pressures; 7 interruptions in production; 8 loss of or inability to obtain adequate protection for intellectual property rights; 9 litigation; 10 loss of key executives or other employees. Demiurge Technologies AG (“Demiurge”) undertakes no duty or obligation to publicly update or revise the forward-looking statements or other information contained in this presentation. You should not view information related to the past performance of Demiurge and its affiliates or information about the market, as indicative of future results, the achievement of which cannot be assured. While some information used in this document may have been obtained from various published and unpublished sources considered to be reliable, Demiurge neither guarantees its accuracy or completeness nor accepts liability for any direct or consequential losses arising from its use. Amounts and percentages may reflect rounding adjustments and consequently totals may not appear to sum. None of the information in this presentation does, by itself, constitute an offering or an offering circular according to Article 652a of the Swiss Code of Obligations and is subject to change without notice. Any offer or solicitation with respect to any securities that may be issued by Demiurge will be made only by means of definitive offering memoranda or prospectus, which will be provided to prospective investors and will contain material information that is not set forth herein, including risk factors relating to any such investment. Before making an investment, you must obtain and carefully read all information needed to evaluate the investment, including, but not limited to the documents providing important disclosures regarding risks, fees and expenses. An investment in Demiurge may be volatile and can suffer from adverse or unexpected market moves or other adverse events. Investors may suffer the loss of their entire investment. An investment in Demiurge will be discrete from an investment in any funds or other investment programs managed by Demiurge and the results or performance of such other investment programs is not indicative of the results or performance that will be achieved by Demiurge or such investment programs.

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