Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the publication of a new research study in mice, where Hepion's lead drug candidate, rencofilstat, prevented the growth of liver tumors that occurred as a result of chronic infection with the human hepatitis C virus ("HCV"). The study was published in the peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal, Viruses, and was conducted by Drs. Winston Stauffer, Philippe Gallay, and colleagues at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, California).

mice were infected with HCV, which caused the development of small liver nodules at around 12 weeks post-infection that progressed to very large tumors by 24 weeks post-infection. Daily rencofilstat treatment was initiated at week 0 or later time points: When initiated at week 0, rencofilstat treatment completely prevented HCC development measured at week 30 likely because the drug also blocked HCV infection and therefore eliminated a key driver of HCC development; Hepion recently announced a new mechanism by which rencofilstat exerts anti-cancer activity in liver cancer and the drug's anti-cancer activity in numerous cell lines representing 86% of cancer types. The Company's lead drug candidate, Rencofilstat, is a potent inhibitor of cyclophilins, which are involved in many disease processes.

Rencofilstat has been shown to reduce liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma tumor burden in experimental disease models and is currently in Phase 2 clinical development for the treatment of NASH. In November 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") granted Fast Track designation for rencofilstat for the treatment of NASH". That was followed in June 2022 by the FDA's granting of Orphan Drug designation to rencofilstat for thetreatment of HCC.

Hepion has created a proprietary Artificial Intelligence deep machine learning ("AI/ML") platform designed to better understand disease processes and identify patients that are rencofilstat responders. This AI/ML has the potential to shorten development timelines and increase the observable differences between placebo and treatment groups. In addition, Hepion's AI/ML can be used to drive its ongoing NASH and HCC clinical development programs and identify other potential therapeutic indications for cyclophilin inhibition with rencofilstat.

These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "forecast," "estimated," and "intend," among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Hepion Pharmaceuticals' current expectations and actual results could differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. There are no guarantees that future clinical trials discussed in this press release will be completed or successful, or that any product will receive regulatory approval for any indication or prove to be completed.