Everest Medicines announced its strategic plans for the next two years and beyond as the Company progresses to becoming a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company with expertise and capabilities across the full biotechnology value chain, including proven self-discovery and in-licensing, clinical development, and established manufacturing and
commercialization . The Company's renal disease and mRNA platform portfolios, both of which comprise multiple
promising early- and late-stage therapeutic candidates, will be Everest's core areas of focus. The potential approval and launch of Nefecon, the Company's lead renal portfolio product candidate, is expected in China in the second half of 2023. China has the world's highest prevalence of primary glomerular disease and IgA nephropathy is the most common glomerular disease with around 5 million patients in the country. In parallel, the Company aims to initiate clinical trials and file an Emergency Use Authorization application in 2023 in China for its lead mRNA candidate, EVER-COVID19-M1, a bivalent COVID-19 booster. In just under 16 months since its partnership with Providence Therapeutics Holdings Inc., Everest has completed industrial-scale technology transfer, advanced its clinically-validated mRNA platform, and successfully carried out trial production runs at its commercial-scale manufacturing facility in Jiashan, China. In addition to its COVID-19 program, Everest will continue to harness the full potential of its mRNA technology platform to drive development of preventive and therapeutic vaccines against various infectious diseases and cancers. In addition to the Company's focus on renal diseases and mRNA platform, it is also pursuing several product candidates in the pipeline with best-in-class potential, including Xerava which is also expected to receive NDA approval in 2023, and etrasimod for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.