Circio Holding ASA

Regulatory Filings • Jun 30, 2025

NeoRegen Biotech and Circio advance circular RNA delivery collaboration into in vivo stage

NeoRegen Biotech and Circio advance circular RNA delivery collaboration into in vivo stage

* Neoregen and Circio continue to progress their circular RNA research

collaboration, initiated in 2023

* Neoregen will run in vivo studies to assess the delivery efficiency of

circVec DNA vectors using their proprietary NICT delivery platform

* The planned studies will generate important data to validate the technology

combination and select targets for future clinical development

Oslo, Norway, and Seoul, South Korea, 30 June 2025 -- Circio Holding ASA (OSE:

CRNA) and NeoRegen Biotech, today jointly announce the signing of a second

Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) to advance their ongoing collaboration for

the delivery of circular RNA (circRNA) expression-based therapeutics. The

collaboration now is progressing to the in vivo preclinical stage. This

milestone follows the successful proof-of-concept (POC) results from in vitro

studies conducted under their initial MTA, signed in 2023. The collaboration

was formed to provide solutions to the critical challenges in the delivery of

nucleic acid medicines.

Circio is the world-leader in circular RNA-based expression systems for next

generation gene and cell therapy. Its unique circVec expression platform has

demonstrated the potential to significantly enhance the durability and

expression level of both viral and non-viral therapeutics. NeoRegen Biotech,

known for its next-generation intracellular delivery solutions, contributes

its NICT platform, which has shown superior performance in cellular

penetration and endosomal escape compared to conventional delivery systems.

The in vivo studies aim to further validate the therapeutic potential of

circRNA expression vectors through the integration of Circio's proprietary

circVec platform with NeoRegen's NICT (Neoregen Intra-Cellular delivery

Technology). Together, the two companies are addressing one of the most

critical challenges in nucleic acid drug development: achieving safe,

efficient, targeted and durable intracellular delivery.

"The successful transition into in vivo studies marks a pivotal step in our

co-development of circular RNA vector therapeutics," said Dr. Jeongmin Seo,

CEO of NeoRegen Biotech. "Combining NeoRegen's NICT platform with Circio's

circVec technology has the potential to overcome key nucleic acid delivery

barriers to fully realize the promise of gene and cell therapies."

"It is a very important milestone in the partnership that NeoRegen Biotech has

decided to progress to in vivo testing of their unique NICT platform with

circVec DNA vectors," said Dr. Thomas Hansen, CTO of Circio. "The NICT

delivery technology has shown strong promise to enable efficient delivery of

DNA-format therapeutics to specific tissues. The planned in vivo studies will

generate essential data to identify target disease indications and progress

circVec-NICT candidates towards future clinical studies."

This second MTA reaffirms the mutual commitment of both companies to advancing

circVec-NICT therapies with potential applications in cell and gene therapy,

oncology, and beyond. As the program progresses through the preclinical phase

and establishes in vivo proof-of-concept, Circio and NeoRegen plan to select

specific targets for development and accelerate their joint R&D efforts toward

clinical readiness.

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.

About NeoRegen Biotech

Pioneering advanced intracellular delivery technologies to unlock the full

potential of nucleic acid therapeutics and peptide drug development

NeoRegen Biotech is a South Korea-based biotechnology company pioneering

next-generation intracellular delivery platforms, especially designed to

transform the landscape of gene, cell, and RNA-based therapies. Its

proprietary NICT (Neoregen Intra-Cellular delivery Technology) platform

enables safe, targeted, and highly efficient delivery of macromolecular

therapeutic payloads across cell membranes and through endosomal barriers.

Recently, NICT has gained recognition as a next-generation delivery system

capable of introducing various plasmid DNAs into cells with exceptionally high

efficiency and no detectable toxicity, enabling the successful generation of

large numbers of pluripotent stem cells. NeoRegen maintains a research and

development pipeline that spans from early discovery to preclinical

validation. With a robust foundation in regenerative science and intracellular

delivery engineering, NeoRegen is committed to setting new standards in the

era of intracellular therapeutics.

For further information, please contact:

Erik Digman Wiklund, CEO

Phone: +47 413 33 536

Email: erik.wiklund@circio.com

Neil Hunter -- Hunter PR

Phone:+44 7821 255568 ()

Email: neiljameshunter@gmail.com ()