Phoenix PharmaLabs Successfully Completes Second Oversubscribed Netcapital Offering Raising more than $1 million to Fund Continued Development of Company’s Two Non-Addictive Opioid Compounds for Acute and Chronic Pain

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WOODCROSS, Utah – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Phoenix PharmaLabs, Inc. (https://phoenixpharmalabs.com), a privately held company developing two non-addictive opioid supplements for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, today announced the completion of a second . known successful financing round via the equity financing portal Netcapital (https://netcapital.com) for 1.07 million US dollars. Like its previous Netcapital offering in 2019, this Reg CF increase was oversubscribed. “Over a thousand investors, many of whom invested in our previous funding, took part in this offer, telling us they did because they were happy with our progress over the past two years – even with the challenges that the closures of COVID-19 have caused our development schedule, “said William Crossman, President and CEO of Phoenix PharmaLabs. Crossman stated that this funding opportunity, along with U.S. Army and NIH / NIDA grants and investments from accredited investors, will allow the company to advance the development of two compounds that have been shown to have significant potential in various in vitro and in vivo studies to be potent, safe, and non-addictive analgesics. In August 2020, the company acquired a portfolio of 25 compounds from the University of Bath. One of these compounds is being developed as PPL-138 to treat chronic pain without the possibility of addiction or other significant opioid side effects. This compound and PPL-103, the non-addictive opioid the company is developing to treat acute pain, will continue to be brought into the clinic for Phase 1, 2 and Proof-of-Concept clinical trials. Both compounds have also been shown to be treatments for opioid addiction (PPL-103) and cocaine additive (PPL-138) in preclinical studies, and the company is tracking these indications as well. During the pandemic, the opioid crisis accelerated. At the end of last year, the CDC reported 81,000 deaths from opioids for the 12 months ended May 2020 (https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.html), which is the most recent largest number reported. No statistics are yet available for the year ending May 2021. “This problem remains pressing and the need for non-addictive analgesics is enormous,” said Crossman, whose own stepson has an addiction after being prescribed opioids for pain relief after a construction accident more than a decade ago. “Many of our investors are individuals like me whose families have been personally affected by the opioid crisis. Many more members of the medical community – pharmacists, doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, addiction specialists – all have seen firsthand the devastation that addictive pain treatments have caused to individuals and their loved ones. We believe our drugs can help provide non-addictive treatments for pain for those in need of relief. ”PPL-103 and PPL-138 Phoenix has two compounds under development as non-addictive analgesics: PPL-103 is the company’s first active ingredient and binds strongly to all three opioid receptors in the brain (mu, kappa and delta) and then only partially stimulates those receptors in a much more balanced way. PPL-103 stimulates the mu receptor only slightly (approx. 20%) with higher, but not complete, stimulation of kappa and delta. This partial stimulation siphons off an analgesic benefit from all three receptors, but is not strong enough to produce the serious opioid side effects associated with any of these receptors, as has been shown in numerous in vivo studies. PPL-138, a compound acquired in 2020 as part of a portfolio of compounds developed at the University of Bath, uses a different mechanism of action. PPL-138 partially stimulates the mu and NOP (nociceptin) receptors. PPL-103 and PPL-138 have clearly shown in various animal studies that they do not induce euphoria (or dysphoria) and do not lead to addiction. Research has shown that there is an extremely high correlation between these animal studies and human abuse liability studies and other indicators that measure the potential for abuse and addiction in humans. Phoenix is ​​extremely optimistic about the potential of both compounds as non-addictive pain treatments. The Netcapital Funding Portal is registered with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a registered national securities association. More information is available at https://netcapital.com.

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