WALTHAM, Mass. – December 12, 2018 – X-Chem, Inc. (X-Chem), a privately held biotechnology company applying its innovative drug discovery platform to the generation of novel small molecule therapeutics, announced today a drug discovery partnership with Almirall, S.A. (Almirall) to discover lead compounds for innovative and challenging targets with dermatology applications.
Under the terms of the agreement, X-Chem will utilize its industry-leading DNA-encoded library (DEX™) screening platform and proprietary informatics tools to search for novel hits for Almirall targets. X-Chem’s DEX libraries enable the screening of vast areas of drug-like chemical space, and support Almirall’s goal of identifying drug-like leads with shorter development timelines. Almirall will assess the biochemical and/or cellular activity, novelty, and in some cases advanced properties of the leads identified under the collaboration. Almirall has the option to license these drug leads, and will be responsible for further development and commercialization of the resulting programs.
Bhushan Hardas, M.D., MBA, Chief Scientific Officer of Almirall, commented, “This agreement takes us one step further in our goal of becoming a leading medical dermatology company. With the cutting edge technology offered by X-Chem and our strong knowledge of the area of dermatology, we will be able to broaden our pipeline and provide further medical solutions for the physicians and patients, specially designed for dermatological diseases with unmet medical needs.”
“The treatment of dermatological diseases is an important field of research with unmet medical needs. We are delighted to align with Almirall, a leader in the field, to apply our DEX platform to the discovery of new treatments for patients worldwide,” said Rick Wagner, president and CEO of X-Chem.

About X-Chem’s DNA-Encoded (DEX) Libraries and Platform

X-Chem’s DEX drug discovery engine is based on a collection of drug-like DNA-encoded libraries derived from iterative combinatorial chemistry processes, where the identity of each compound is recorded in a linked DNA barcode. The pooled libraries are used in low volume, affinity-based screening against biological targets, whereby ligands are ‘fished out’ and identified via DNA sequencing. Innovations in drug-like library design, screening methodologies, and cheminformatics underlie the industry-leading performance of the DEX platform. The use of previously inaccessible chemical reactions and atom-efficient synthesis schemes generate maximal diversity and rule-of-five compliance. Parallel screens, either varying target concentration or including off-targets, mutants or known ligand competitors, allow for insight into the potency, mechanism of action, and specificity of putative hits. Proprietary statistical and bioinformatics tools identify multiple clusters of related molecules with emergent structure-activity relationships. These innovations underpin X-Chem’s success against difficult and intractable targets that have failed in conventional screening, and have generated over 60 programs and over 150 lead series, which include fragments, low molecular weight heterocycles, macrocycles, and irreversible covalent electrophiles, licensed by X-Chem’s partners.

About X-Chem

X-Chem, Inc. is a privately-owned biotechnology company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company’s mission is to apply its powerful product engine to the discovery of small molecule leads against high-value therapeutic targets. X-Chem has established partnerships with AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Department of Defense/Harvard, Gilead, Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho Pharma, Vertex, and several other leading pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, and academic centers. For further information on X-Chem, please visit: https://www.x-chemrx.com/.

X-Chem Contact
Steffen Helmling
VP, Business Development
X-Chem, Inc.
shelmling@x-chemrx.com
+1 781 419 6900

WALTHAM, Mass. – July 26, 2018 – X-Chem, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on applying its industry-leading DNA-encoded (DEX™) library drug discovery engine to the generation of novel small molecule therapeutics, today announced that it has licensed its 10th drug discovery program to date in 2018, bringing the total number of licensed programs to 50 since it launched its first target-based drug discovery partnership in 2012.
The licensed programs cut across a wide range of the therapeutic areas and target protein classes. In each case, X-Chem identified multiple small molecule compound leads and related structures, using its proprietary >200 billion compound DEX screening platform, that met criteria pre-set by the partner, sometimes including in vitro DMPK parameters. The partner subsequently assessed the biochemical and/or cellular activity, novelty of the structures, and in some cases advanced properties of the compounds (such as membrane permeability or blood brain barrier penetration). Each license carries ongoing milestone and royalty commitments from the partner as the compounds advance through drug discovery and development decision gates.
X-Chem’s licensing rate with its partners and spin-out companies has substantially increased over the past twelve months, following new breakthroughs with its DEX technology platform. X-Chem’s industry-leading group of partners, which include AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Janssen, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho Pharma, and Vertex, together with many other leading pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, and academic centers, are the direct beneficiaries of these investments. Additionally, X-Chem has launched four spin-out companies, including Xios, X-Biotix, X-Rx, and one undisclosed company, which are advancing programs into late lead optimization and/or clinical development.
“The X-Chem DEX platform continues to deliver high quality small molecule leads against the most challenging targets,” said X-Chem CEO, Rick Wagner. “This success is entirely due to the industry-leading innovations we continue to make in next-generation library design, advanced screening methodologies, proprietary informatics tools, and database infrastructure. These innovations could not have been achieved without building a team with diverse and deep chemistry, encoded library, display technology, and drug discovery expertise, and the know-how that we have acquired over the past decade through screening a multitude of targets in collaboration with our partners.”

About X-Chem’s DNA-Encoded (DEX™) Libraries and Platform

X-Chem’s DEX™ drug discovery engine is based on a collection of DNA-encoded libraries comprising over 120 billion unique small molecules derived from iterative combinatorial chemistry processes, where the identity of each compound is recorded in a linked DNA barcode. The pooled libraries are used in low volume, affinity-based screening against biological targets, whereby ligands are ‘fished out’ and identified via DNA sequencing. Innovations in library design, screening methodologies, and bioinformatics underlie the exceptional performance of the DEX™ platform. The use of previously inaccessible chemical reactions and atom-efficient synthesis schemes generate maximal diversity and rule-of-five compliance. Parallel screens, either varying target concentration or including off-targets, mutants or known ligand competitors, allow for insight into the potency, mechanism of action, and specificity of putative hits. Proprietary statistical and bioinformatics tools identify multiple clusters of related molecules with emergent structure-activity relationships. These innovations underpin X-Chem’s success against difficult and intractable targets that have failed in conventional screening, and have generated over 100 lead series licensed by X-Chem’s partners including fragments, low molecular weight heterocycles, macrocycles, and irreversible covalent electrophiles.

About X-Chem

X-Chem, Inc. is a privately-owned biotechnology company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company’s mission is to apply its powerful product engine to the discovery of small molecule leads against high-value therapeutic targets. X-Chem has established partnerships with AbbVie, Abilita Bio, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Department of Defense/Harvard, Gilead, Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho Pharma, Vertex, and several other leading pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, and academic centers. For further information on X-Chem, please visit: https://www.x-chemrx.com/.

For additional information contact:
X-Chem, Inc.
Edward E. Koval
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
781-419-6900

WALTHAM, Mass. April 24, 2018 – Small molecule drug discovery specialist X-Chem, Inc. (XChem) today announced that its spin-out company X-Biotix Therapeutics, Inc. (X-Biotix) has secured $7 million in a Series A financing from a group of private investors. X-Biotix, launched in 2017 out of X-Chem by Ramani Varanasi, Ph.D. and faculty members in the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School, plans to use the financing to advance its pipeline of novel antibiotics targeting Gram-negative bacteria. The company leverages the research of its scientific founders in essential biological pathways in bacteria and X-Chem’s DNA-encoded small molecule discovery platform.
The increasing spread of bacterial resistance and a decline in antibiotics R&D in the pharmaceutical industry have severely impacted treatment options for many types of bacterial infections. Gram-negative multi-drug-resistant infections represent a critical unmet medical need globally, with over 2 million drug resistant infections in the US each year.
For detailed information about X-Biotix please visit X-Biotix’s website at

About X-Chem’s DNA-Encoded (DEX™) Libraries and Platform
X-Chem’s DEX™ drug discovery engine is based on a collection of DNA-encoded libraries comprising over 120 billion unique small molecules derived from iterative combinatorial chemistry processes, where the identity of each compound is recorded in a linked DNA barcode. The pooled libraries are used in low volume, affinity-based screening against biological targets, whereby ligands are ‘fished out’ and identified via DNA sequencing. Innovations in library design, screening methodologies, and bioinformatics underlie the exceptional performance of the DEX platform. The use of previously inaccessible chemical reactions and atom-efficient synthesis schemes generate maximal diversity and rule-of-five compliance. Parallel screens, either varying target concentration or including off-targets, mutants or known ligand competitors, allow for insight into the potency, mechanism of action, and specificity of putative hits. Proprietary statistical and bioinformatics tools identify multiple clusters of related molecules with emergent structure-activity relationships. These innovations underpin X-Chem’s success against difficult and intractable targets that have failed in conventional screening, and have generated over 100 fragment, low molecular weight heterocycle, macrocycle, and irreversible covalent electrophilic lead series that have been licensed by X-Chem’s partners.

About X-Chem
X-Chem, Inc. is a privately owned biotechnology company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company’s mission is to apply its powerful product engine to the discovery of small molecule leads against high-value therapeutic targets. X-Chem has established partnerships with AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho, Vertex, and several other leading pharmaceutical companies,
biotechnology organizations, and academic centers. For further information on X-Chem, please visit: .

About X-Biotix Therapeutics, Inc.
X-Biotix is a discovery, early preclinical-stage company that was spun out of X-Chem and incorporated in 2016, with a focus on delivering the next generation of antibiotics to combat multi-drug resistant Gram-negative pathogens. The company, located in Waltham, MA, is undertaking a multi-target discovery strategy to rapidly identify and validate novel small molecule scaffolds and advance them into development. For further information on X-Biotix, please visit:

For additional information about X-Biotix please contact:

X-Biotix Therapeutics, Inc.
Ramani Varanasi President & CEO
781-419-6945

For additional information about X-Chem please contact:
X-Chem, Inc.
Steffen Helmling, Ph.D.
Vice President, Business Development
781-419-6900

– Additional Executive Leadership Appointment Announced: Matthew Clark, Ph.D., SVP Chemistry –

WALTHAM, Mass. – March 15, 2018 – X-Chem, Inc. today announced the appointment of Christelle Huguet, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer, along with an executive leadership appointment for Matthew Clark, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President, Chemistry. In the newly created position, Dr. Huguet will report directly into Rick Wagner, Ph.D, XChem’s CEO. Dr. Huguet and Dr. Clark will be members of X-Chem’s Executive Committee.

Dr. Huguet is a senior pharmaceutical research and development leader with over 20 years of industry experience. Most recently, Dr. Huguet was head of internal research at Alexion, focusing on rare and devastating diseases. Prior to this, she spent 18 years at Pfizer running programs from the early phases of drug discovery to the early clinical development of programs through PhIIb. Dr. Huguet’s most recent position at Pfizer was Chief Scientific Officer Inflammation and Remodelling Unit. Over the course of her career, Dr. Huguet delivered more than 10 NCE candidates for clinical development, and led a number of PhI and PhIIa/b clinical trials.

Dr. Clark is a world renowned pioneer in the field of DNA encoded libraries of small molecules and is a founding scientist at X-Chem. Dr. Clark has overseen the development of the X-Chem DEXTM platform, including the creation of 200 billion molecules in X-Chem’s screening library, along with the successful application of the platform that has led to 44 licensed programs to X-Chem’s 22 active partnerships.

“We are delighted to have Christelle join our team,” said Rick Wagner. “She brings tremendous depth and experience to drive programs successfully into clinical development, as X-Chem continues to forward integrate and expand its research and development capabilities. In addition, we very much look forward to the ongoing and expanded strategic contributions from Matthew as he further builds X-Chem’s internal medicinal chemistry and DMPK functions”

“X-Chem has proven its drug discovery capabilities across its many partnerships”, said Christelle Huguet. “I am looking forward to helping X-Chem further build out its capabilities and technologies to realize its mission of transforming patients’ lives.”

“We are at a very exciting time at X-Chem,” said Matthew Clark. “We have continued to innovate technologies that we believe will have profound impacts on how drugs are discovered and developed. I look forward to helping X-Chem continue to lead this effort.”

About X-Chem’s DNA-Encoded (DEX™) Libraries and Platform
X-Chem’s DEX drug discovery engine is based on a collection of DNA-encoded libraries comprising over 120 billion unique small molecules derived from iterative combinatorial chemistry processes, where the identity of each compound is recorded in a linked DNA barcode. The pooled libraries are used in low volume, affinity-based screening against biological targets, whereby ligands are ‘fished out’ and identified via DNA sequencing. Innovations in library design, screening methodologies, and bioinformatics underlie the exceptional performance of the DEX platform. The use of previously inaccessible chemical reactions and atom-efficient synthesis schemes generate maximal diversity and rule-of-five compliance. Parallel screens, either varying target concentration or including off-targets, mutants or known ligand competitors, allow for insight into the potency, mechanism of action, and specificity of putative hits. Proprietary statistical and bioinformatics tools identify multiple clusters of related molecules with emergent structure-activity relationships. These innovations underpin X-Chem’s success against difficult and intractable targets that have failed in conventional screening, and have generated over 100 fragment, low molecular weight heterocycle, macrocycle, and irreversible covalent electrophilic lead series that have been licensed by X-Chem’s partners.

About X-Chem
X-Chem, Inc. is a privately owned biotechnology company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company’s mission is to apply its powerful product engine to the discovery of small molecule leads against high-value therapeutic targets. X-Chem has established partnerships with AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho, Vertex, and several other leading pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, and academic centers. For further information on X-Chem, please visit: https://www.x-chemrx.com/.

For additional information contact:
X-Chem, Inc.
Steffen Helmling, Ph.D.
Vice President, Business Development
781-419-6900

– License grants AbbVie exclusive rights to small molecule programs in oncology and immunology discovered using X-Chem’s DEX™ platform –

WALTHAM, Mass. – March 13, 2018 – Small molecule drug discovery specialist XChem, Inc. today announced that AbbVie has exercised options to license two discovery programs. Under the terms of the parties’ 2016 multi-target research collaboration, AbbVie had an option to an exclusive license to the programs, each of which comprises multiple novel, cell-active modulators of two historically challenging targets in oncology and immunology.

“Our goal in this collaboration was to leverage the target expertise of AbbVie and the power of X-Chem’s libraries and DEX platform,” said Rick Wagner, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of X-Chem. “The results demonstrate that even the most challenging targets can be tackled with small molecule approaches when the right expertise comes together.”

About X-Chem’s DNA-Encoded (DEX™) Libraries and Platform
X-Chem’s DEX drug discovery engine is based on a collection of DNA-encoded libraries comprising over 120 billion unique small molecules derived from iterative combinatorial chemistry processes, where the identity of each compound is recorded in a linked DNA barcode. The pooled libraries are used in low volume, affinity-based screening against biological targets, whereby ligands are ‘fished out’ and identified via DNA sequencing. Innovations in library design, screening methodologies, and bioinformatics underlie the exceptional performance of the DEX platform. The use of previously inaccessible chemical reactions and atom-efficient synthesis schemes generate maximal diversity and rule-of-five compliance. Parallel screens, either varying target concentration or including off-targets, mutants or known ligand competitors, allow for insight into the potency, mechanism of action, and specificity of putative hits. Proprietary statistical and bioinformatics tools identify multiple clusters of related molecules with emergent structure-activity relationships. These innovations underpin X-Chem’s success against difficult and intractable targets that have failed in conventional screening, and have generated over 100 fragment, low molecular weight heterocycle, macrocycle, and irreversible covalent electrophilic lead series that have been licensed by X-Chem’s partners.
About X-Chem
X-Chem, Inc. is a privately owned biotechnology company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company’s mission is to apply its powerful product engine to the discovery of small molecule leads against high-value therapeutic targets. X-Chem has established partnerships with AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho,
Vertex, and several other leading pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, and academic centers. For further information on X-Chem, please visit: https://www.x-chemrx.com/.

For additional information contact:
X-Chem, Inc.
Steffen Helmling, Ph.D.
Vice President, Business Development
781-419-6900

– Latest contract extension stresses the value of X-Chem’s DEX™ platform to AstraZeneca’s long-term small molecule discovery strategy –

WALTHAM, Mass. – January 17, 2018 – Small molecule discovery specialist X-Chem, Inc. today announced a significant expansion of their existing global drug discovery collaboration with the global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The new agreement focuses on the synthesis and delivery of custom libraries to AstraZeneca as well as the transfer of the DEX platform, allowing for in-house screening of DNAencoded libraries at AstraZeneca. It is the third agreement between AstraZeneca and XChem since 2012 and builds on the success of the parties’ existing collaboration, which has resulted in numerous licenses to novel small molecules across multiple discovery programs and therapeutic indications to date.

“The DEX™ platform is an important pillar of our small molecule discovery strategy. This extended collaboration reflects the strength and success of our work with X-Chem over the past five years and secures long-term access to this capability,” said Dr. Menelas Pangalos, Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca’s Innovative Medicines and Early Development Biotech Unit.

“The relationship with AstraZeneca has been one of X-Chem’s longest and most fruitful collaborations,” said Rick Wagner, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of XChem. “AstraZeneca’s decision to internalize the DEX platform and conduct DEL screening in-house is a testament to the power of the DEX technology and its importance for small molecule drug discovery in the future.”

Under the terms of the agreement, X-Chem will receive upfront technology access and license fees, as well as multi-year committed funding. X-Chem is also eligible for additional payments linked to the exercise of specific technology transfer options and the achievement of certain R&D and commercial milestones. In addition, X-Chem will receive royalties for each successfully commercialized drug that results from joint targetbased collaboration programs.

About X-Chem’s DNA-Encoded (DEX™) Libraries and Platform
X-Chem’s DEX™ drug discovery engine is based on a collection of DNA-encoded libraries comprising over 120 billion unique small molecules derived from iterative combinatorial chemistry processes, where the identity of each compound is recorded in a linked DNA barcode. The pooled libraries are used in low volume, affinity-based screening against biological targets, whereby ligands are ‘fished out’ and identified via DNA sequencing. Innovations in library design, screening methodologies, and bioinformatics underlie the
exceptional performance of the DEX™ platform. The use of previously inaccessible chemical reactions and atom-efficient synthesis schemes generate maximal diversity and rule-of-five compliance. Parallel screens, either varying target concentration or including off-targets, mutants or known ligand competitors, allow for insight into the potency, mechanism of action, and specificity of putative hits. Proprietary statistical and bioinformatics tools identify multiple clusters of related molecules with emergent structure-activity relationships. These innovations underpin X-Chem’s success against difficult and intractable targets that have failed in conventional screening, and have generated over 100 fragment, low molecular weight heterocycle, macrocycle, and irreversible covalent electrophilic lead series that have been licensed by X-Chem’s partners.
About X-Chem X-Chem, Inc. is a privately owned biotechnology company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company’s mission is to apply its powerful product engine to the discovery of small molecule leads against high-value therapeutic targets. X-Chem has established partnerships with AbbVie, Alexion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Janssen, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ono, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Taiho, Vertex, and several other leading pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, and academic centers.
For further information on X-Chem, please visit: https://www.x-chemrx.com/.

For additional information contact:
X-Chem, Inc.
Steffen Helmling, Ph.D.
Vice President, Business Development
781-419-6900