REYKJAVIK, Iceland--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals (www.epiendo.com) is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of this year’s Rising Star Award at the Swedish American Life Sciences Summit (SALSS). EpiEndo is a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on a novel barrier enhancing approach to the treatment of chronic inflammatory airway diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

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Maria Bech, CEO and Dr Fridrik Gardarsson, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals, together with Gunnar Andersson, Honorary Consul of Austria, sponsor of the SALSS 2021 Rising Star Award sculpture. (Photo: Business Wire)

The SALSS Rising Star Award recognizes a life science company with the potential to revolutionize and influence a global market and was presented in Stockholm on Friday the 22^nd of October to Maria Bech, CEO and Dr Fridrik Gardarsson, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of EpiEndo, by Barbro Ehnbom, Founder and Chairman of SALSS.

“We are both honoured and very proud to receive this prestigious award,” commented Maria Bech, CEO of EpiEndo Pharma, “The SALSS Rising Star Award endorses our potential to impact COPD, one of the world’s major diseases, as well as the relevance and applicability of the unique clinical platform that we are building around the science of epithelial integrity.”

The SALSS 2021 distinguished international panel of judges for the award comprised:

• Dr. Robert Langer, Koch Institute Professor, MIT and co-founder of Moderna
• Dr. Mathias Uhlén, Professor, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and multiple biotechnology entrepreneur
• Dr. Mikael Dolsten, President, Worldwide Research & Development, Pfizer
• Dr. Eugen Steiner, Venture Partner, Stockholm-based venture capital firm HealthCap

The judges assessed scientific and medical innovation, potential for healthcare impact, stage of commercial realization and environmental impact and concluded:

“The winner of SALSS 2021 Rising Stars is EpiEndo for its level of innovation and potential impact in COPD, one of the leading causes of debilitating disease and death globally. EpiEndo is developing a candidate drug with a novel mode of action that, if successfully brought to the patients, could change the treatment paradigm for COPD. EpiEndo won the top scores from all judges in the criteria of level of scientific and medical innovation and potential for healthcare impact, giving it the lead over competitors.”

SALSS is an exclusive, invitation-only conference that attracts some of the life science industry’s most cutting-edge researchers, visionary entrepreneurs, prominent business leaders and investors. SALSS aims to facilitate integration and collaboration between the attendees to allow for the creation of strategic relations that may further the global life science industry. This year’s theme at SALSS was cell and gene therapy, as well as the COVID pandemic.

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About EpiEndo Pharmaceuticals (www.epiendo.com)

EpiEndo is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a unique approach to inflammatory disorders that focuses on enhancement of epithelial barrier integrity as a critical pathophysiological factor underlying the etiology of a number of major diseases. Epithelial cells are a key component of the barrier that makes up human lung tissue and other organs such as the gut and skin. Compromised integrity of this barrier is implicated in the progression and non-resolution of several chronic inflammatory diseases.

EpiEndo is developing a proprietary portfolio of orally available macrolide drugs with promise as first-in-class disease-modifying therapeutics, to address the huge global burden of chronic diseases of the lung and other organs where there is other significant unmet medical need. EpiEndo’s lead drug candidate, EP395, aims to be the first on-market oral, non-antibiotic, barrier strengthening and anti-inflammatory macrolide for the treatment of COPD.

About SALSS (www.salss.com)

SALSS 2021 is the 17^th Annual Swedish American Life Sciences Summit, an exclusive, invitation-only annual conference that attracts some of the Life Science industry’s most significant researchers, business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors. The goal of SALSS is to generate collaboration and strategic relations between academia, industry and financiers, thus enhancing the global life science industry. The theme of the SALSS 2021 conference was cell and gene therapy and the global COVID pandemic.

Founder of SALSS, Barbro C. Ehnbom combines long experience in the US pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street with today’s financial services within the field of Life Science in both countries. Barbro has been a pioneer in the Life Science industry throughout her entire career. She was one of the first female executives in several US pharmaceutical companies, a top analyst in Wall Street, followed by many years of investment banking.

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