HitGen Announces Achievement of Milestone from DEL Discovery Alliance with Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ., USA

KENILWORTH, N.J. & CHENGDU, China–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HitGen Inc., announced today that it has achieved a milestone in its
discovery alliance with Merck & Co. Inc., Kenilworth NJ, USA, known as
MSD outside the United States and Canada. The milestone was for the
identification of candidates meeting pre-defined criteria, representing
the 3rd discovery program between the two companies for which HitGen has
achieved this milestone. This achievement entitles HitGen to receive an
undisclosed payment per the research collaboration agreement between
both companies announced March 14, 2017.

“To date we have initiated screening efforts on multiple Merck discovery
programs from various therapeutic areas. These programs are at various
stages of screening, selection, synthesis and validation and are all
progressing. These achievements mark the continued progress and success
of the discovery collaboration between the companies spanning a range of
discovery programs. We look forward to announcing future milestones as
the programs progress,” said Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief
Executive Officer of HitGen.

About HitGen Inc.

HitGen is a rapidly growing biotech company with headquarters and main
research facilities based in Chengdu, China and with a subsidiary in the
USA. HitGen has established a platform for small molecule drug centred
around the design, assembly and interrogation of DNA encoded chemical
libraries (DELs). HitGen’s DELs contain nearly 400 billion novel,
diverse, drug-like small molecule and macrocyclic compounds. These
compounds are members of DELs synthesized from many hundreds of distinct
chemical scaffolds, designed with tractable chemistry, and yielding
proven results for the discovery of small molecule leads against
precedented and unprecedented classes of biological targets. HitGen is
collaborating with pharmaceutical, biotech, and chemical companies,
foundations and research institutes in North America, Europe, Asia and
Africa to discover and develop approaches for novel medicines and
agrochemical solutions.

For more information, please visit www.hitgen.com

Contacts

Dr. Jin Li, Chairman & CEO, HitGen Inc. Tel: +86 28 85197385 (8001)