Mr. Richard Muruve reports

ARCH STRENGTHENS ITS POSITION AS A LEADING KIDNEY THERAPEUTICS COMPANY WITH THE ACQUISITION OF A BREAKTHROUGH PLATFORM TO DEVELOP NEW DRUGS TARGETING CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE (CKD)

Arch Biopartners Inc. has acquired a preclinical platform developing new drugs to treat chronic kidney disease. The platform includes recently filed patents protecting new compositions and methods targeting a novel mechanism of action involving interleukin-32 (IL-32), which is directly implicated in the progression of CKD.

Farris Smith, strategic adviser to Arch and former chief financial officer of Novo Nordisk Canada, said: "This new chronic kidney disease program expands the commercial potential of Arch's kidney drug development pipeline. The assets underlying the CKD program could provide novel, on-target treatment options for a significant unmet need in a major pharmaceutical market. Combined with Arch's existing acute kidney injury programs, Arch is better positioned for potential new partnership opportunities that can accelerate development and drive long-term value for the company."

Richard Muruve, chief executive officer of Arch Biopartners, said: "Our entry into the CKD drug development business is a natural evolution for our team that has a strong core competency in nephrology. Today's news makes Arch Biopartners' kidney drug portfolio more vital to patients and more valuable to the pharmaceutical industry."

Arch obtained the new CKD assets through the acquisition of all outstanding shares of Lipdro Therapeutics Inc., a private Alberta-based company and arm's length to the company, in return for 250,000 common shares of Arch at a deemed price of $1.85 per common share and a royalty on net sales in the future, and subject to final approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. Dr. Justin Chun, MD, PhD, founder and 100-per-cent owner of Lipdro, joins the company as a principal scientist to lead development of the new Arch CKD platform. The common shares, when issued to Dr. Chun following today's announcement, will be subject to a four-month hold period.

The therapeutic platform acquired by Arch specifically targets interleukin-32 (IL-32), a non-classical cytokine involved in regulating inflammation and immune responses. In preclinical studies, Dr. Chun and his scientific team discovered that IL-32 is directly implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic CKD. New drug compositions were subsequently invented through a collaboration involving the National Research Council of Canada, Lipdro and Arch scientists, and exclusively licensed to Arch by the NRC. Additional therapeutic approaches involving IL-32 were developed and patented by Dr. Chun and Arch scientists and assigned to Arch.

Dr. Daniel Muruve, chief science officer at Arch Biopartners and professor at Cumming school of medicine, University of Calgary, said: "We are excited to welcome Dr. Chun to the Arch science team as a principal scientist and leader of the IL-32 CKD program. His deep scientific knowledge as a nephrologist and his leading expertise in working with patient-derived kidney organoids will be invaluable as Arch develops novel therapeutics targeting chronic kidney disease."

These patents are a significant addition to Arch's kidney drug asset portfolio. The IL-32 CKD program deepens the company's portfolio for developing new treatments for kidney diseases and injury. The new program introduces a novel therapeutic approach for diabetic CKD, the most common cause of kidney failure globally. The therapeutic platform is based on a mechanistic understanding of disease pathways and builds on Arch's expertise in renal inflammation and organ protection.

Dr. Chun said: "Targeting the underlying mechanisms of inflammation and fibrosis that drive CKD is critical for preventing irreversible structural organ damage and slowing the progression toward kidney failure. In this context, our discovery of IL-32 as an intracellular, unconventional cytokine that links metabolic dysregulation to chronic inflammation represents a promising therapeutic target and opens new avenues for halting the progression of CKD, including diabetic kidney disease."

An overview of the IL-32 mechanism of action related to diabetic-CKD is summarized by Dr. Chun and his collaborators in the following abstract published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology: "IL-32 Is a Lipid Droplet-Associated Mediator of Tubular Injury in Diabetic Kidney Disease." Chronic kidney disease affects more than 800 million people worldwide and approximately 35 million to 38 million in the United States. Diabetes is the leading cause, responsible for an estimated 30 per cent to 40 per cent of all CKD cases. Diabetic CKD leads to kidney failure and several other major co-morbidities, including cardiovascular disease. Many current renal therapies are based on unanticipated off-target actions of drugs originally designed to control blood pressure, blood sugar and cardiovascular complications rather than targeting specific biological pathways in the kidney that drive disease.

Arch's newly acquired on-targe' CKD platform stands apart from many drugs in use today and may represent the next generation of CKD candidates for clinical development in the pharmaceutical industry.

About Dr. Justin Chun

Dr. Chun, MD, PhD, is an associate professor and clinician scientist at the Cumming school of medicine, University of Calgary, and assistant director of the precision medicine in nephrology program at the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases. He also co-directs the Human Organoid Innovation Hub, where his research focuses on using patient-derived kidney organoids and primary kidney cells to study glomerular diseases and diabetic kidney disease.

About Arch Biopartners Inc.

Arch is a therapeutic biotech company developing novel drugs for acute and chronic kidney diseases. The company is advancing an integrated pipeline that includes new treatments targeting inflammation- and toxin-induced kidney injury.

The company's programs include a preclinical chronic kidney disease platform targeting IL-32 (announced today), an LSALT peptide, a first-in-class DPEP1 inhibitor in phase 2, for preventing cardiac-surgery-associated acute kidney injury, and cilastatin, a repurposed drug in phase 2 for preventing toxin-induced kidney damage.

These assets represent distinct, mechanism-based approaches to treating and preventing common causes of kidney damage. Together, they target serious unmet needs in kidney care across both chronic and acute indications, affecting millions of patients worldwide.

The company has 66,106,366 common shares outstanding.

We seek Safe Harbor.