Press Release

Actavis confirms timeline for the start of phase III development of abicipar

Zurich-Schlieren, May 11, 2015. Molecular Partners AG (ticker: MOLN) today announced that the new Actavis/Allergan management team has confirmed the abicipar phase III clinical program is on track to be initiated by the end of Q2 2015 or early in the third quarter. Abicipar is an investigational drug for wet AMD, a leading cause of blindness in the western world. Current treatments require monthly or bi-monthly injections into the eye. The phase III study program will evaluate the safety and efficacy of abicipar and its potential to improve vision gains whilst reducing the number of treatment injections versus ranibizumab (Lucentis®), addressing two significant unmet medical needs for patients with wet AMD.

This is the first official announcement from Actavis/Allergan on abicipar following the companies’ merger in March, underlining the commitment to the DARPin™ program and to the timeline proposed by Allergan prior to the merger.

“We welcome Actavis’ high commitment to advancing abicipar through a strong phase III ophthalmology development program. We appreciate the Actavis/Allergan management team’s decision to prioritize the development program for abicipar, despite ongoing inte-gration,” said Patrick Amstutz, Chief Operating Officer at Molecular Partners. “We are looking forward to continuing to support our partner progress abicipar through to rapid commercial launch.”

About abicipar
Abicipar is a long-acting mono-DARPin™ that inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) and is currently under investigation for the treatment of two major causes of blindness worldwide: neovascular, or wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME). Abicipar has the potential to require less frequent injections into the eye than the current anti-VEGF standards of care, while providing equal or better improvements in vision, both seen as mayor patient benefits in these indications. Abicipar was exclusively licensed to Allergan/Actavis from Molecular Part-ners in May 2011.

About wet AMD
Wet AMD is a progressive chronic disease of the central retina and is a leading cause of blindness global-ly with a total of 1.3 million wet AMD cases in the US and 1.5 million cases in Europe. It is estimated that 196 million people worldwide will be affected by age-related macular degeneration by 2020, increasing to 288 million by 2040. USD 255 billion is the estimated annual cost of visual impairment due to AMD to health care systems worldwide. Patients with moderate AMD suffer a 40% decrease in quality of life, similar to patients with heart disease or on kidney dialysis.

About Molecular Partners in ophthalmology
Molecular Partners has a strong focus on creating differentiated therapeutics for retinal diseases, in-cluding wet AMD and diabetic macular edema (DME), two diseases leading to loss of vision. Together with Actavis, Molecular Partners plans to advance several programs, including multi-VEGF/PDGF DARPin™, a product that inhibits both VEGF and PDGF, through preclinical and clinical development to com-mercial launch.

About Molecular Partners AG
Molecular Partners is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is developing a new powerful class of therapies known as DARPins™. DARPins™ are potent, specific and versatile small protein thera-pies, which have the potential to offer benefits over conventional monoclonal antibodies or other cur-rently available protein therapeutics. The DARPins™ technology has the potential to offer a multi-benefit approach to treatment, which enables DARPins™ to target multiple pathways, or multiple epitopes on a single target to achieve substantial patient benefit. DARPins™ have the potential to advance modern medicine and significantly improve the treatment of serious diseases, including cancer and sight-threatening disorders.

Molecular Partners has four compounds in various stages of clinical and preclinical development and several more in the research stage, with a current focus on ophthalmology and oncology. The company has ongoing research and development partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies, including Actavis, Roche and Janssen and is backed by established biotech investors. For more information regard-ing Molecular Partners, go to: www.molecularpartners.com.

For further details please contact:
Dr. Christian Zahnd, CEO
christian.zahnd@molecularpartners.com

Rolf Schläpfer
rolf.schlaepfer@konsulenten.ch
Tel: +41 (0) 43 344 42 42

Dr. Patrick Amstutz, COO
patrick.amstutz@molecularpartners.com
Tl: +41 (0) 44 755 77 00

Cat Barnett
cat@justhealthcomms.com
Tel: +44 (0) 7581 071707

Legal Notice
This announcement is not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any securities of Molecu‐ lar Partners AG (the “Company”), nor shall it or any part of it form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with any contract or investment decision. This announcement is not for publication or distribution (directly or indirectly) in or to the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or any other jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful.

This announcement contains statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward‐looking statements. In some case, these forward‐looking statements can be identified by the use of forward‐looking terminology or subjective assessments, including the words “potential”, “expects”, “targets”, “designed”, “intends” or “plans” or comparable terminology or by discussions of plans, objectives, targets, goals, future events or intentions. These forward‐looking statements include matters that are not historical facts or which may not otherwise be provable by reference to past events, and are based on assumptions. By their nature, forward‐ looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and/or depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements and forecasts. Past performance of the Company cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

The information, opinions and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as at its date, and are subject to change without notice. Neither the Company nor any other person undertakes any obligation to review, update, confirm, or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that arise in relation to the content of this announcement.