SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO - Vistagen (Nasdaq: VTGN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the treatment landscape for individuals living with anxiety, depression, and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, and Fuji Pharma Co., Ltd. ('Fuji') (TSE: 4554), a pharmaceutical company specializing in development, manufacture and marketing in the fields of women's healthcare and acute medical care, today announced they have entered into a time-limited (up to approximately eighteen months) agreement to negotiate exclusively with each other regarding a potential license to develop and commercialize Vistagen's PH80 in Japan, including for the acute treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) due to menopause and potentially other indications.

Vistagen's PH80 neuroactive nasal spray demonstrated statistically significant efficacy versus placebo in an exploratory double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2A study in women diagnosed with menopausal hot flashes. Fuji will make a non-refundable payment of $1.5 million to secure the time-limited exclusive negotiation rights for the Japanese market.

'As we have seen across our neuroactive pherine nasal spray pipeline, PH80 offers exciting potential to transform a significant segment of a major healthcare market, including the current treatment landscape for women's healthcare,' said Shawn Singh, CEO of Vistagen. 'Menopausal hot flashes affect millions of women worldwide. We share Fuji Pharma's long-standing commitment to deliver innovative treatment options with potential to enable women to improve their physical, mental and social well-being. As we continue to advance our PH80 development program in the U.S., we look forward to continuing our ongoing discussions with Fuji regarding a potential development and commercialization collaboration in Japan.'

'Our core mission at Fuji Pharma centers on helping people lead healthy lives by offering excellent pharmaceutical solutions. We believe that PH80 will provide new treatment options to improve the quality of life and further strengthen our position as one of the best Japanese specialty pharmaceutical companies in women's health,' said Takayuki Iwai, President & CEO of Fuji. 'We will continue to engage in dialogue with Vistagen, anticipating that successful development of PH80 will contribute to women's health in Japan.'

About PH80

PH80 is a rapid-onset neuroactive pherine nasal spray product candidate designed to be used in a manner analogous to a rescue inhaler for asthma, taken by patients as-needed up to multiple times daily. Several pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic studies show that PH80 administered intranasally is below the level of detection in plasma of human subjects and laboratory animals. Based on other studies conducted by Vistagen, pherine molecules have no detectable uptake in the brain and do not absorb systemically. All these data, along with the minimal adverse events reported in all clinical studies to date, demonstrate the excellent safety profile of this new class of molecules. In a placebo-controlled exploratory Phase 2A clinical trial, PH80 demonstrated an excellent safety profile and potential as a new treatment for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) associated with menopause.

About Vasomotor Symptoms (Hot Flashes) due to Menopause

Hot flashes are vasomotor symptoms (VMS) commonly experienced by women in menopause and are accompanied by hallmark symptoms such as sudden feelings of warmth, night sweats and flushed skin. Presentation of hot flashes is directly linked to changes in hormone levels due to menopause, or to menopause induced by other medical treatments or co-existing conditions, and the causal mechanism is unclear. Hot flashes are the most common symptom of the menopausal transition, affecting about 75% of menopausal women and about 40% of women in perimenopause. Current pharmacotherapies to treat hot flashes include hormonal therapy (estrogen with or without progesterone, or a synthetic progestin), gabapentins, certain antidepressants, clonidine and fezolinetant, a neurokinin 3 (NK3) receptor antagonist, all of which are associated with certain side effects.

About Exploratory Phase 2A Study of PH80 in Vasomotor Symptoms (Hot Flashes) due to Menopause

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled exploratory Phase 2A clinical study of PH80 (n=36) designed to explore the efficacy, safety and tolerability of intranasal administration of PH80 for the acute management of menopausal hot flashes in women, PH80 induced significant reduction in the daily number of hot flashes compared to placebo at the end of the first week of treatment, and the improvement was maintained through each treatment week until the end of the treatment period. At baseline, subjects reported a mean daily number of hot flashes of 7.7 (PH80, n=18) and 8.0 (placebo, n=18). After one week of treatment, the number of hot flashes dropped to 2.8 (PH80) and 6.4 (placebo) (p

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