The combined Company will move forward as Decoy Therapeutics, Inc. and trade on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker “DCOY” effective in early January 2026

Company to focus on advancing lead antiviral programs, expanding platform validation and achieving multiple data milestones

Strategic 2026 roadmap designed to accelerate development, expand pipeline breadth, and drive long-term shareholder value

HOUSTON, Dec. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Salarius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLRX) today announced that in connection with its recent combination with Decoy Therapeutics Inc. (Decoy), the Company intends to change its corporate name to Decoy Therapeutics Inc. and its NASDAQ ticker symbol to DCOY.

The planned name and ticker change mark a pivotal step in the Company’s transformation into a platform-driven biotechnology company focused on novel peptide-conjugate therapeutics with applications across viral diseases and oncology.

The Company expects the name and ticker symbol change to become effective in early January 2026. The Company will continue to trade under the existing symbol SLRX until the effective date. The Company's transfer agent will remain unchanged. Stockholder approval was not required to take any specific action with respect to the corporate name change or new ticker symbol. The corporate name change and new ticker symbol will not impact the Company's operations. As previously announced Decoy’s senior management team joined by Salarius’s finance team will lead the new Company’s operations.

“This planned rebrand reflects far more than a name change, it represents the strategic foundation of the combined companies,” said Rick Pierce, Chief Executive Officer of Decoy Therapeutics. “With the merger complete, we are now singularly focused on advancing integration of Decoy’s differentiated therapeutic platforms, expanding our pipeline and creating multiple value-inflection opportunities through data generation, program advancements, including getting our lead program into human clinical trials.”

A Platform Built for Scale, Speed, and Strategic Partnerships
Decoy Therapeutics is advancing a proprietary peptide-conjugate platform designed to selectively intercept and neutralize high-value biological targets, with early programs addressing pan-coronavirus activity and multi-viral threats, including influenza and RSV. The Company’s lead antiviral program has attracted strategic interest from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and global health organizations, positioning Decoy to pursue additional non-dilutive grant funding, collaborations, and future development partnerships as data emerge.

In parallel, Decoy is advancing next-generation discovery programs, including:

• Multi-virus decoy candidates designed to address overlapping respiratory threats
• Cell-based and organoid-level validation of novel GPCR targeted drug candidates outside of antivirals

Together, these efforts are intended to support multiple investigational new drug (IND) applications and their enabling activities, peer-reviewed publications, and partnering discussions, while maintaining capital efficiency and flexibility.

2026 Focus: Execution, Data and Potential Milestones

Looking ahead, the Company plans to prioritize:

• Advancing lead antiviral programs toward regulatory readiness
• Expanding discovery and preclinical validation across multiple platforms
• Leveraging AI-enabled computational infrastructure to accelerate candidate selection
• Pursuing strategic collaborations with big pharma, technology leaders, and academic institutions
• Strengthening the Company’s capital structure and investor visibility
  
  

The Company believes this execution-focused approach positions Decoy Therapeutics to generate multiple shots on goal while retaining upside through partnerships and non-dilutive funding sources.

About Decoy Therapeutics Inc.
Salarius’ subsidiary Decoy is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company that is leveraging ML and AI tools alongside high-speed synthesis techniques to rapidly design, engineer and manufacture peptide conjugate drug candidates that target serious unmet medical needs. The Company’s initial pipeline is focused on respiratory viruses and GI cancers. Decoy has attracted financing from institutional investors as well as significant non-dilutive capital from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Seed Fund, the Google AI startup program and the NVIDIA Inception program among other sources. The company has also received QuickFire Challenge award funding provided by the BARDA through BLUE KNIGHT™, a collaboration between Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS and BARDA within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

About Salarius Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Salarius is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with two drug candidates for patients with cancer in need of new treatment options. Salarius’ product portfolio includes seclidemstat, the company’s lead candidate, which is being studied in an investigator-initiated Phase 1/2 clinical study in hematologic cancers underway at MD Anderson Cancer Center as a potential treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) in patients with limited treatment options. SP-3164, the company’s IND-stage second asset, is an oral small molecule protein degrader. Salarius previously received financial support for seclidemstat for the treatment of Ewing sarcoma from the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation and was a recipient of a Product Development Award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. For more information, please visit www.salariuspharma.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the Company, including expected achievement of milestones for its lead asset and future prospects of the Company. These statements may discuss goals, intentions and expectations as to future plans, trends, events, results of operations or financial condition, or otherwise, based on current beliefs of the management of the Company, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. Forward-looking statements generally include statements that are predictive in nature and depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and include words such as “may,” “will,” “can,” “should,” “would,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “likely,” “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” and other similar expressions. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors, including, without limitation: the risk that the Company will not obtain sufficient financing to execute on their business plans and risks related to Decoy’s products and development plans, including unanticipated issues with any IND application process and the potential of the IMP3ACT™ platform. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by Salarius in its reports filed with the SEC, including its Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on August 22, 2025, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, as revised or supplemented by its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents filed with the SEC. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, the Company’s actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected.

Contact:
Salarius Pharmaceuticals
Rick Pierce, CEO
Pierce@decoytx.com
617-447-8299

Business Development
Peter Marschel, CBO
Peter@Decoytx.com
617-943-6305

Investors and Media
Alliance Advisors IR
Jody Cain
jcain@allianceadvisors.com
310-691-7100

Investor Contact:
JTC Team, LLC
Jenene Thomas
(908) 824-0775
dcoy@jtcir.com 

Salarius Pharmaceuticals, Inc.