Catalyst Biosciences Engages Perella Weinberg Partners to Assist the Company in Exploring Strategic Alternatives

Rhea-AI Summary

Catalyst Biosciences (NASDAQ: CBIO) has engaged Perella Weinberg Partners as a financial advisor to explore strategic alternatives. The collaboration aims to monetize its hemophilia assets and find partners for its complement asset development. CEO Nassim Usman emphasized PWP's extensive network and expertise in accelerating business development efforts. Catalyst focuses on developing innovative protease therapeutics, addressing unmet medical needs in complement system disorders, including their CB 4332 protease and partnerships with Biogen.

Positive

• Engaged Perella Weinberg Partners to explore strategic options.
• Focus on monetizing hemophilia assets and fostering partnership opportunities.
• Unique protease engineering platform aimed at diverse drug development.

Negative

• Dependency on external partnership success for asset monetization.
• Risks associated with not having clinical trials initiated for several products.
• Potential need for additional capital raises.
• Uncertainty surrounding Biogen's commitment to ongoing agreements.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Catalyst Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBIO) today announced it has retained Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP) as a financial advisor to assist the Company in exploring strategic alternatives.

“Perella Weinberg Partners, a leading global independent advisory firm, is providing strategic support to our internal team as we look to both monetize our hemophilia assets and identify partners to accelerate the development of our portfolio of complement assets. We are also leveraging our unique protease engineering platform to generate novel biopharmaceutical drug candidates that address a wide range of potential indications,” said Nassim Usman, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Catalyst. “We believe that PWP, with its broad network and deep expertise in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, can help accelerate our ongoing business development efforts as well as broaden the breadth of potential partners for our programs.”

About Catalyst Biosciences, the Protease Medicines company
Catalyst is a research and clinical development biopharmaceutical company focused on developing protease therapeutics to address unmet medical needs in disorders of the complement system. Proteases are natural regulators of this biological system. We engineer proteases to create improved or novel molecules to treat diseases that result from dysregulation of the complement cascade. Our complement pipeline consists of several proteases that regulate the complement cascade including our improved Complement Factor I protease CB 4332 for patients with deficiencies in CFI, a preclinical C3-degrader program licensed to Biogen for dry age-related macular degeneration (dAMD), and proteases from our ProTUNE™ C3b/C4b degrader and ImmunoTUNE™ C3a/C5a degrader platforms designed to target other disorders of the complement or inflammatory pathways.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, those regarding plans for PWP to provide support to Catalyst in exploring strategic alternatives, as well as statements about the benefits of Catalyst’s protease engineering platform. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions, expectations, and projections disclosed in the forward-looking statements. Various important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially, including, but not limited to, the risk that Catalyst’s business efforts will not succeed, that Biogen could terminate the agreement with Catalyst for the development of CB 2782-PEG, that CB 4332 and Catalyst's complement degraders are not yet in human clinical trials and will require additional manufacturing validation and preclinical testing before entering human clinical trials and multiple clinical trials before being approved, that Catalyst may need to raise additional capital, and other risks described in the "Risk Factors" section of Catalyst's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on March 4, 2021, the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on November 12, 2021, and in other filings filed from time to time with the SEC. Catalyst does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Contact:
Ana Kapor
Catalyst Biosciences, Inc.
investors@catbio.com

FAQ

What strategic alternatives is Catalyst Biosciences exploring?

Catalyst Biosciences is exploring strategic alternatives to monetize its hemophilia assets and identify partners for its complement assets.

Who is assisting Catalyst Biosciences with strategic advice?

Catalyst has retained Perella Weinberg Partners as its financial advisor.

What is the focus of Catalyst Biosciences' protease platform?

The focus is on developing protease therapeutics for disorders of the complement system.

What are the potential risks mentioned in Catalyst's press release?

Risks include the failure to achieve successful business efforts and the potential need for additional capital.

What is the status of Catalyst’s pipeline products?

Catalyst's products, including CB 4332, are not yet in human clinical trials and require further testing.