* circVec boosts AAV potency by up to 40x in the eye and heart indicating
significant potential in these two areas; testing in other tissues is
ongoing
* New circVec 3.2 design achieves 3x increased expression level vs. previous
circVec generations specifically in AAV gene therapy vectors
* circVec may enable >10-fold or more viral dose reduction, addressing key
safety concerns and costs challenges of current AAV gene therapy
* First half year report demonstrates continued cost control and financial
runway until end of 2025
Oslo, Norway, 28 August 2025 -- Circio Holding ASA (OSE: CRNA), a
biotechnology company developing powerful circular RNA technology for next
generation nucleic acid medicine, today announces it is presenting
strengthened in vivo data for its circVec-AAV expression system. The data
demonstrates up to 40 times advantage vs. conventional mRNA-based AAVs in
multiple settings. Circio management will provide an overview of the new
circVec results, as well as a summary of the first half year 2025 financial
report, in a live webcast at 10:00am CEST, today, Thursday 28 August 2025.
In the presentation, Circio s CTO Dr. Thomas B Hansen will showcase the latest
circVec generation 3.2. This novel circVec design significantly enhances gene
expression from AAV vectors in vivo. The encouraging circVec-AAV heart data
presented in May 2025 has now been validated in a larger in vivo repeat
experiment and further augmented by circVec 3.2, which delivers up to 40 times
protein expression level advantage vs. conventional mRNA-AAV. Circio is now
incorporating and testing circVec 3.2 in its portfolio of AAV vectors.
In parallel, Circio is characterizing the performance of circVec-AAVs in
several other tissues, and has identified the eye as an organ showing 15 times
expression advantage compared to benchmark AAVs. Following successful pilot
experiments, broader in vivo testing is currently ongoing. Circio expects to
report this data during the second half of 2025.
"Circio has now completed substantial characterization, engineering and
optimization of its circVec expression system for gene therapy. These results
make it evident that circular RNA-based expression has the potential to
substantially improve the therapeutic potency of AAV vectors in a
tissue-specific manner. This creates multiple distinct development
opportunities for the circVec platform," said Dr. Thomas B Hansen, CTO of
Circio. "A major challenge of conventional mRNA-based AAV gene therapy is the
need for extremely high dose levels. This can cause severe toxicity in
patients and drives up manufacturing cost and complexity. Our current data
package suggests that switching to circVec-based expression may enable
10-fold, or more, dose reduction, which would be a major breakthrough for the
AAV gene therapy field."
During the first half of 2025 Circio has continued to implement tight cost
controls with a lean organizational set-up, strictly prioritizing R&D
activities that can deliver near-term technology validation and business
development opportunities. The extension of the financing commitment by Atlas
Capital Markets secures funding until the end of 2025. The company is
exploring multiple alternatives to secure new capital, strengthen the
shareholder base and thereby minimize the reliance on the convertible bond
facility.
"The technical achievements of Circio s research team continue to impress,
especially given our lean, cost-efficient set-up," said Dr. Lubor Gaal, CFO of
Circio. "Importantly, the latest circVec-AAV in vivo results confirm that the
robust circVec advantage applies broadly. The data package now includes
several tissues, additional AAV capsids and multiple genetic promoters driving
expression. These results broaden and strengthen Circio's data package, and
derisks the technology for potential partners and investors. Our aim is to
leverage these new data to establish R&D collaborations with AAV expert
companies and validate the performance of the circVec platform in their
systems. We already have ongoing dialogues and aim to enter multiple such
partnerships during 2025-26.
Presenters:
CEO Dr. Erik Digman Wiklund
CFO Dr. Lubor Gaal
CTO Dr. Thomas Birkballe Hansen
Time: 10:00 CEST on 28 August 2025
click here to access the Teams webcast
(https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_M2I2MGFjYTgtYWZjMC00YTkwLWJiZGQtNzk5ZWM0MTc2ODIy%40thread.v2/0?context={"Tid"%3a"66b0661a-3ec3-48a8-a966-5b0cce82b3fe"%2c"Oid"%3a"3f5f84b0-5521-4c04-bd8a-e185546abe04"})
Meeting ID: 352 997 264 281
Passcode: dj23Wc6o
Participate by phone:
+47 21402155
Phone conference ID: 591397143#
Questions can be submitted in advance by email to Erik D Wiklund:
erik.wiklund@circio.com or directly in the live webcast
A recording of the webcast will be made available on the Circio webpage
(http://www.circio.com/)
Reporting material attached to this press release:
* Circio first half year report 2025
* Circio 1H25 Webcast presentation
The report and presentation are also available at www.circio.com
For further information, please contact:
Erik Digman Wiklund, CEO
Phone: +47 413 33 536
Email: erik.wiklund@circio.com
Lubor Gaal, CFO
Phone: +34 683 34 3811
Email: lubor.gaal@circio.com
About Circio
Building circular RNA expression systems for enhanced gene and cell therapies
Circio Holding ASA is a biotechnology company developing powerful circular RNA
vector expression technology for next generation nucleic acid medicine.
Circio has established a unique circular RNA (circRNA) vector expression
technology for next generation RNA, DNA and viral therapeutics. The
proprietary circVec platform is based on a modular genetic cassette design for
efficient biogenesis of multifunctional circRNA inside cells. The circVec
platform has applications in multiple therapeutic settings, including genetic
medicine, cell therapy and chronic disease. It has demonstrated over 70-fold
prolonged RNA half-life and up to 15-fold enhanced protein expression vs.
conventional mRNA vector systems in vivo, and has the potential to become a
new gold-standard protein expression technology. The circRNA R&D activities
are being conducted by the wholly owned subsidiary Circio AB in Stockholm,
Sweden.
This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and is subject to the disclosure requirements
pursuant to MAR article 17 and section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities
Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 2025-08-28 07:00
CEST.
This stock exchange announcement was published by Mats Hermansen, VP Finance,
on behalf of the Company, at the time and date stated above in this
announcement.