Professor Richard Ross receives international honour from Endocrine Society

Diurnal Group plc (AIM: DNL), the specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases, announces that Professor Richard Ross, a founding Director of Diurnal and Chief Scientific Officer, has been recognised by the Endocrine Society’s 2021 Laureate Awards for Outstanding Innovation.

Established in 1944, the Endocrine Society’s Laureate Awards recognises the highest achievements in the endocrinology field, including ground-breaking research and innovations in clinical care. The Outstanding Innovation Award recognises endocrinologists who have demonstrated innovation and entrepreneurship to further endocrine research or practice in support of the field of endocrinology, patients, and society at large.

Professor Ross has been awarded this honour for his research on optimising endocrine replacement therapy that has focused on replacement of cortisol in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Professor Ross is one of only a few clinical scientists who has founded an endocrine specialty pharmaceutical company, Diurnal, that has not only developed new therapies but also commercialised those therapies for patients.

Professor Richard Ross, a founding Director of Diurnal and Chief Scientific Officer, commented:

“I would like to thank the Endocrine Society for their warm welcome at the beginning of my career, inspiring me in endocrinology, and I am honoured to receive the award. The Laureate Award is recognition of the pioneering research we have developed at Diurnal and an inspiration to the team to continue our work of developing new treatments for patients with unmet needs in endocrine diseases.”

The award will be presented to Professor Ross at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in March 2021.

For further information, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk or contact:

Diurnal Group plc +44 (0)20 3727 1000

Martin Whitaker, Chief Executive Officer 

Richard Bungay, Chief Financial Officer 

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) +44 (0) 20 7886 2500

Corporate Finance: Freddy Crossley, Emma Earl

Corporate Broking: James Stearns

FTI Consulting +44 (0)20 3727 1000

Simon Conway 

Victoria Foster Mitchell

Notes to Editors

About Paediatric Adrenal Insufficiency

Paediatric AI, including the genetic condition CAH is a condition characterised by deficiency in cortisol, an essential hormone in regulating metabolism and the response to stress. The primary symptoms of AI are chronic fatigue and patients are at risk of adrenal crisis and death if they do not have adequate cortisol replacement. AI is either primary or secondary, with primary AI resulting from diseases intrinsic to the adrenal gland and secondary AI resulting from pituitary diseases where there is a failure of stimulation of the adrenal by the pituitary of the signalling hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone).

About Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is an orphan condition caused by deficiency of adrenal enzymes, most commonly 21-hydroxylase. This enzyme is required to produce the adrenal steroid hormone, cortisol. The block in the cortisol production pathway causes the over-production of male steroid hormones (androgens), which are precursors to cortisol. The condition is congenital (inherited at birth) and affects both sexes. The cortisol deficiency and over-production of male sex hormones can lead to increased mortality, infertility and issues during sexual development including ambiguous genitalia, premature (precocious) sexual development and short stature. Sufferers, even if treated, remain at risk of death through an adrenal crisis.

Current therapy for CAH uses a variety of generic steroids (hydrocortisone, dexamethasone and prednisolone) with no standard treatment regimen. Approximately two-thirds of CAH patients are estimated to have poor disease control, leading to elevated androgen levels. The condition is estimated to affect a total of approximately 41,000 patients in Europe, 17,000 in the US, with over 400,000 in the rest of the world.

About Diurnal Group plc

Founded in 2004, Diurnal is a UK-headquartered, European specialty pharma company developing pharmaceutical products for the global market for the life-long treatment of chronic endocrine conditions, including congenital adrenal hyperplasia and adrenal insufficiency. Its expertise and innovative research activities focus on circadian-based endocrinology to yield novel product candidates in the rare and chronic endocrine disease arena.

For further information about Diurnal, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk

About the Endocrine Society

The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organisation of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions. The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries.

For further information about the Endocrine Society, please visit https://www.endocrine.org/

Date of Preparation: August 2020            Code: CORP-GB-0069