San Francisco, California--(Newsfile Corp. - September 22, 2026) - DIMERx, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel dimer-based therapeutics, today announced that it has received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to advance DMX-201 for sickle cell disease (SCD). DMX-201 has the potential to become a first-line therapy for acute chest syndrome (ACS), helping reduce acute respiratory distress, shorten hospital stays, decrease opioid use, and improve quality of life for patients.

The NHLBI award represents DIMERx's second major NIH-supported development program and follows the company's 2025 award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term® (HEAL) Initiative to advance DMX-101 as a potential non-addictive oral therapy for chronic pain. Together, these two independently supported NIH programs provide scientific validation of DIMERx's proprietary dimer platform across distinct drug candidates, mechanisms and therapeutic areas, while providing non-dilutive funding to advance the company's development pipeline.

DMX-201 is a novel dimer-based therapeutic designed to address endothelial dysfunction, an important contributor to sickle cell disease and its serious complications. DMX-201 represents a differentiated approach to targeting the underlying biology of the disease. As DIMERx's second development program, DMX-201 also demonstrates the broader potential of the company's dimer platform beyond its lead clinical-stage asset, DMX-101.

"We are very pleased to receive this award from NHLBI and believe it represents an important milestone for both DMX-201 and DIMERx," said Nikhilesh Singh, MPharm, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of DIMERx. "With two distinct dimer drug candidates now supported by NIH development programs, we believe this funding provides meaningful independent validation of our platform and its potential to generate novel therapies across areas of significant unmet medical need. We look forward to working with NHLBI to advance DMX-201 toward clinical development."

"Sickle cell disease remains an area of significant unmet medical need, particularly for patients experiencing serious and recurrent complications of the disease," said Sharl Azar, MD, Medical Director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and an advisor to DIMERx. "DMX-201 represents a differentiated therapeutic approach with the potential to address an important underlying component of sickle cell disease. We look forward to supporting its continued development and evaluating its potential to improve outcomes for patients living with sickle cell disease."

"DMX-201 was developed from the hypothesis that a covalently linked dimer could create a differentiated therapeutic approach to enhancing nitric oxide biology," said Maurizio Fava, MD, co-inventor of DMX-201 with Xudong Huang, PhD, and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Mass General Brigham. "It is gratifying to see this concept advance into a formal NIH-supported development program."

About DIMERx, Inc.

DIMERx, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class, covalently linked dimer-based therapeutics to address major public-health challenges in pain management and the opioid crisis. Co-founded by Nikhilesh Singh, MPharm, PhD, CEO and Gregory Beyer, CFO/COO, DIMERx is building a pipeline of innovative dimer-based candidates targeting pain and other serious conditions with high unmet medical need.

The company's lead asset, DMX-101, is a covalently modified, chemically stable, halogen-free buprenorphine dimer (CAS No: 1820753-68-1) that acts peripherally at the source to provide non-addictive pain relief. DMX-101 is in Phase 2 clinical development for chronic lower back pain. Across Phase 1 and Phase 2a studies involving more than 400 subjects and patients, DMX-101 has demonstrated a favorable safety profile, including pancreatic safety, and clear analgesic benefits. The DMX-101 program, which includes a planned human abuse liability study, is supported by a grant awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the NIH HEAL Initiative.

DIMERx's second program, DMX-201, is a covalently linked dimer and next-generation nitric oxide (NO) donor being developed for acute chest syndrome in sickle cell disease, a serious complication associated with endothelial dysfunction and severe pain that is commonly treated with centrally acting opioids. As part of the program, DIMERx is collaborating with Lauren Fields, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), to bring a mental health perspective to understanding patient lived experiences and help inform the clinical development of DMX-201. Development of DMX-201 is supported by the NHLBI under NIH Award No. 1R44HL186981-01.

DMX-101 and DMX-201 are investigational product candidates and have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other regulatory authority for commercial use. Learn more at www.dimerx.com.

About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, provides global leadership for research, training, and education programs to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders and enhance the health of all individuals.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including information about management's view of DIMERx ("the Company"), future expectations, plans and prospects. In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," or "may," and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any statements made in this press release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the results of the Company, its subsidiaries and concepts to be materially different than those expressed or implied in such statements. Unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material adverse effects on the Company's future results. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. The Company cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Finally, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements after the date of this release, except as required by law, and also takes no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties that are not paid for by DIMERx.

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Source: DIMERx INC.