HELIX ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF THE SALE OF ITS RIVEX PHARMA DIVISION TO PHARMASCIENCE

(Aurora, Ontario) – Helix BioPharma Corp. (TSX, FSE: “HBP”) (“Helix”), a biopharmaceutical company
developing drug candidates for the prevention and treatment of cancer, announced today the completion of
the previously announced sale of its Rivex Pharma division to Pharmascience Inc. (“Pharmascience”) for
gross cash proceeds of $8.5 million, subject to adjustment (the “Rivex Transaction”). The Rivex
Transaction was approved by 100% of the votes cast by shareholders present in person or by proxy at Helix’s
annual general and special meeting held on January 24, 2013.

Helix’s Chief Executive Officer, Robert Verhagen, said “We are pleased to have successfully closed the
Rivex Transaction, which will provide a significant cash infusion to Helix and will permit Helix to focus on
the research and development aspects of its business. We wish Pharmascience and the employees of the
Rivex Pharma division all the best in the future as they work together to invest in and build Rivex Pharma’s
drug distribution business together.”

“The acquisition of Rivex will enable our brand division, Pendopharm, to fuel its expansion strategy,” added
David Goodman, Chief Executive Officer of Pharmascience. “We are excited by the opportunity that Rivex’s
business presents to Pendopharm and are committed to support the newly acquired product line.”

About Pharmascience Inc.

Founded in 1983, Pharmascience is a Canadian-owned pharmaceutical company that is based in Montreal
and has over 1,300 employees. Pharmascience specializes in the development and marketing of a wide range
of innovative and high-quality generic drugs, available by prescription, over the counter and in hospitals.
Ranked third among the largest Canadian pharmaceutical companies in terms of prescriptions,
Pharmascience sells its products in over 60 countries, with sales in excess of $700 million. Pendopharm is
the brand division of Pharmascience (www.pendopharm.com).

Investor Relations:

Helix BioPharma Corp.

Tel: 905 841-2300

Email: ir@helixbiopharma.com

Forward-Looking Statements and Risks and Uncertainties

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and information (collectively, “forwardlooking statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including with respect to Helix’s ongoing business and operations following completion of the Rivex Transaction, and the focus on LDOS47 in particular. Forward-looking statements, which may be identified by words including, without limitation, “will”, “may”, “subject”, “expects”, and other similar expressions, are intended to provide information about management’s current plans and expectations regarding future operations.

Although Helix believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated and no assurance can be given that these expectations will be realized, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Risk factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements are more fully described in Helix’s most recent Annual Report, including under the headings “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors”, filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators under Helix’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com (together, the “Helix Risk Factors”). Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, that the Helix Risk Factors will not cause Helix’s actual results or events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements and information are based on the beliefs, assumptions and expectations of Helix’s management on the date of this news release, and Helix does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement or information should those beliefs, assumptions or expectations, or other circumstances change, except as required by law.

20130125-HBP-Press-Release-Announces-Completion-of-Sale-of-Rivex.pdf

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Jacek Antas

Chief Executive Officer


Jacek Antas is a shareholder of the Company, has spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry holding various positions in sales and consulting.

Mr. Antas obtained a master’s degree from the Warsaw School of Economics and has served as a board member of various
companies throughout his career.

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James B. Murphy

Chief Financial Officer


Mr. Murphy is a certified public accountant with over thirty years of experience in finance and operations management. He is currently a consultant with Danforth Advisors LLC (“Danforth”), a leading provider of outsourced strategic and operational specialists across functions in the life sciences industry. While at Danforth, Mr. Murphy has served over fifteen private and publicly held life sciences companies as CFO and CFO Advisor, helping them secure over USD 0.5 billion in financing and successfully execute pivotal asset transactions. Mr. Murphy functions as a consultant to Helix pursuant to a consulting agreement between the Company and Danforth.

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Thomas Mehrling

Medical Adviser


Thomas Mehrling (PhD in Pharmacology and MD) has over 20 years’ experience in multinational Pharma companies developing novel oncology compounds from preclinical research through to registration. Prior to entering the industry, he spent 13 years as an MD at the University Hospital in Frankfurt, working on preclinical and translational projects. He served as Director of European Oncology at Mundipharma International (2003–2013), building the company’s first European oncology business from the ground up out of Cambridge, UK, and completing the clinical development, registration and launch of two major products in Europe, DepoCyte® and Levact® (Ribomustin® and Treanda®). In 2013, he led the establishment of the Mundipharma Group’s start-up, Mundipharma EDO, developing anti-cancer therapeutics for solid tumours out of Basel, Switzerland.

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Kim Gaspar

Director Quality Assurance


Kim is the Director of Quality Assurance at Helix BioPharma Corp. An experienced quality assurance professional with expertise in Canadian, US, and EU regulations, she has been involved in all aspects of Phase I/II biopharmaceutical product development over the years, including regulatory submissions, QC laboratory compliance, tech transfer and third-party oversight of CMC activities, clinical QA, and bioanalytical data analysis. Kim joined Helix in 2000, transitioning into QA in 2003. She holds a B.Sc in Biochemistry and a Ph.D in Veterinary Physiological Sciences, both from the University of Saskatchewan.

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Brenda Lee

Director Clinical Operations


Brenda is the Clinical Operations Director at Helix Biopharma Corp. A clinical research operations professional with 25 years of experience managing clinical trials, ranging from early Phase I to late Phase IIIb/IV studies, she brings experience in clinical study protocol writing and development, trial start-up and vendor management, and a proven track record in planning and managing clinical trials to quality standards, timelines and budget. Brenda joined Helix Biopharma Corp. in 2018, working to advance the clinical program of L-DOS47. She holds B.Sc and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Toronto, specializing in Nutritional Sciences and Human Biology.

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Jerzy Leszczynski

Director


Jerzy Leszczynski is a shareholder of the Company, has spent more than 35 years developing businesses and has served in the capacity of board member of various real estate development companies. Mr. Leszczynski obtained his Master of Science in Chemistry from the Warsaw Institute of Technology.

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Janusz Grabski

Director, Chair of Audit Committee


Janusz (John) Grabski is a lawyer specialized in corporate and real estate law with over twenty years of experience.

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Malgorzata Laube

Director


Malgorzata Laube has over 19 years of experience in nuclear medicine. In her last role with Alberta Health Services, she was the Department Supervisor, Nuclear Medicine at Royal Alexandra Hospital. Ms. Laube obtained a MSc degree in Environmental Engineering from the Warsaw University of Technology and is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

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Jacek Antas

Chairman of the Board


Jacek Antas is a shareholder of the Company, has spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry holding various positions in sales and consulting.

Mr. Antas obtained a master’s degree from the Warsaw School of Economics and has served as a board member of various
companies throughout his career.

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Jonathan Davis

Advisor, ADC Discovery


Jonathan Davis received his Ph.D. from University of California, San Francisco, where he studied protein structure and function using NMR. After a post-doc at Harvard Medical School exploring RNA selection and structure in the labs of Jack Szostak and Gerhard Wagner, he went to work at EMD Serono, where his work involved improving antibody-based therapeutics, inventing a platform technology for generating heterodimeric Fcs as a basis for multifunctional molecules, and developing a novel scaffold based on an artificially-designed protein from David Baker’s lab. In 2008 he took a job at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Waltham/Cambridge MA, working on antibody discovery and platform development in a wide range of therapeutic areas, with a particular focus on multispecific therapeutics. He moved to Madison, WI in 2019 to take on the role of VP of Innovation and Strategy at Invenra, a biotech focused on bispecific antibodies, and where he is currently head of the Scientific Advisory Board. In early 2024 he left the corporate world to found Creative Antibodies, a consulting firm that helps guide companies to successful antibody discovery and development projects, from mAbs to multispecifics, ADCs, and other formats. Outside of science, Jonathan is a conservatory trained cellist, plays numerous other instruments, and founded the UCSF Orchestra (now Symphony Parnassus) in San Francisco, where he was Music Director for six years.

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Davide Guggi

Advisor, CMC


Davide graduated as a pharmacist and received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology and Biotechnology from the University of Vienna. He has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, principally in the field of oncology. At the beginning of his career, Davide led oncology business units and commercial departments at Mundipharma and Gilead across Austria and Eastern Europe. Since over 10 years he has been working as a CMC expert, covering operational and regulatory CMC functions on behalf of over 20 different small- and medium-sized biotech companies across the world. He has served as CMC Director and CSO/CTO for several years, developing both small molecules and biologics (mABs, Fab, ADCs and Radio-immuno-conjugates) from early discovery to NDA/BLA in the US, EU and Canada, with a focus on First-in-Human and Phase I/II studies in oncology indications.

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Tumor Defense Breaker™, L-DOS47


L‑DOS47 is a first‑in‑class, clinical-stage antibody‑enzyme conjugate designed to deliver a game-changing assist to anti-cancer immunity and today’s leading cancer immunotherapies for the treatment of prevalent, hard-to-treat solid tumors. The compound precisely targets CEACAM6, a cell-surface protein overexpressed in non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other aggressive tumors, where it delivers an enzymatic payload that raises the extracellular pH of the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME). By neutralizing tumor acidity, L-DOS47 restores immune cell infiltration and activity, helps turn immunologically “cold” tumors “hot”, and enhances the therapeutic reach of immune checkpoint inhibitors. With patented composition-of-matter coverage through 2036 and demonstrated synergy with PD-1 inhibitor, pembrolizumab, L-DOS47 is poised to significantly increase the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade and unlock broader and more durable responses in NSCLC and other aggressive solid tumors.

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LEUMUNA™


LEUMUNA™ is an oral immune checkpoint modulator designed to activate the donor immune system to recognize and fight relapsing leukemia in patients who have undergone allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). Although a life-saving procedure, up to 30% of patients who undergo allo-SCT see their cancer return, facing a median survival of just four months. LEUMUNA aims to offer these patients a new lease on life, by activating an immune cascade and inciting graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effect, potentially offering long-term remission. Backed by strong preclinical data and a promising safety record from trials with its precursor compound, ulodesine, LEUMUNA offers a patient‑friendly, oral approach to a difficult-to-treat condition, with patent protection through 2041 and an Orphan Drug Designation granted by the US FDA.

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GEMCEDA™


GEMCEDA is a first-in-class oral prodrug of gemcitabine that opens up the possibility for convenient at-home administration, metronomic dosing and seamless integration into combination regimens with immune checkpoint inhibitors. To date, gemcitabine is only administered intravenously because oral forms have shown poor bioavailability of about 10%. GEMCEDA was developed as a prodrug to enable new uses of gemcitabine by combining it with cedazuridine, an enzyme inhibitor that helps boost its bioavailability to 90%. This remarkable innovation allows for greater flexibility in dosing schedules, fewer clinic visits, and a better quality of life, while achieving bioavailability on par with intravenous gemcitabine. Supported by a well‑established safety profile, scalable manufacturing, and patent coverage to 2043, GEMCEDA reimagines how chemotherapy can fit into patients’ lives.

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