Retension Pharmaceuticals

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing medicines for the treatment of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Our product candidate, RTN-001, is a next-generation, once-daily, oral, small molecule phosphodiesterase-5 (“PDE-5”) inhibitor designed to reduce blood pressure by potentiating nitric oxide signaling, a key mechanism underlying the development and severity of hypertension. While first-generation PDE-5 inhibitors, such as Viagra (sildenafil), were originally studied in cardiovascular indications such as hypertension and angina, we believe they did not have adequate bioavailability and tissue penetration to impact the smooth muscle cells of the central vascular and cardiac tissues and thus failed to achieve clinically meaningful reductions in blood pressure. RTN-001 differs from first-generation PDE-5 inhibitors as it has been specifically engineered to have increased bioavailability and an increased distribution to the muscular arteries in the body such as the aorta and its branches in the central vasculature. In two Phase 2 pilot trials, RTN-001 achieved clinically meaningful placebo-adjusted reductions in systolic blood pressure (“SBP”) and diastolic blood pressure (“DBP”) in patients with hypertension and was generally well tolerated, with no drug-related serious adverse events (“SAEs”) reported. We believe RTN-001 has the potential to be an effective treatment for hypertension with a favorable safety profile and thus be part of an anti-hypertensive treatment approach.