Evestra Receives Gates Foundation Grant

SAN ANTONIO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Evestra, Inc. has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation to advance research on a technology that could lead to
long-acting injectable fertility control for women in underserved
regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 20 percent of women
use modern fertility control.

“We share the Gates Foundation’s concern that more than 220 million
women who don’t want to get pregnant and live in developing countries
lack access to fertility control and voluntary family planning
information and services,” said Ze’ev Shaked, Ph.D., Evestra’s President
and CEO. “We applaud the Foundation’s commitment to solving this
problem. Evestra’s expertise and innovative approach to women’s health
issues will greatly benefit the Gates Foundation’s efforts. We’re are
excited to work with them.”

Evestra is applying its proprietary prodrug platform technology to the
development of the product, said Klaus Nickisch, Ph.D., Evestra’s Chief
Scientific Officer. A prodrug is a compound that is inactive until it is
inside a human body, where metabolic processes convert it into an active
drug.

About Evestra

Evestra Inc. (www.Evestra.com)
is a San Antonio, Texas-based biopharmaceutical company engaged in the
research and development of innovative women’s healthcare products.
Evestra’s products address unmet medical needs in women’s health arenas,
and are derived from three research platforms – steroidal medicinal
chemistry, vaginal drug delivery, and prodrug technology.

Contacts

Evestra
Ze’ev Shaked, 210-673-3300 Ext. 101
President and CEO
or
Media
Relations:
Eric Whittington, 210-904-1400