24th Sep 2013 07:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sareum Holdings PLC, the AIM-listed cancer drug discovery business, Tuesday said it has entered into a co-development agreement with the Cancer Research Technology Pioneer Fund and BACIT Ltd to advance its Checkpoint Kinase 1 (CHK1) inhibitor candidate through pre-clinical development and Phase 1 clinical trials.
Under the agreement, the Cancer Research Technology Pioneer Fund obtains worldwide rights to the preclinical CHK1 inhibitor programme and is responsible for future development and commercialisation, funded by CPF, BACIT and Sareum.
Sareum and its original collaboration partners, The Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technology Ltd, are entitled to an up-front fee plus success milestone and royalty payments, Sareum said in a statement.
On successful sub-licencing of the programme, Sareum will also be entitled to a share of sub-licence payments proportional to its investment under the agreement.
Financial terms of the licence were not disclosed.
As part of the agreement, Sareum expects to commit up to GBP800,000 to the programme in its current financial year.
Sareum shares were up 2.6% at 0.975 pence early Tuesday.
The Checkpoint Kinase 1 treatment controls the way many cancer cells respond to DNA damage, which may be a consequence of the cancer itself, or intentionally caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Inhibition of CHK1 affects the ability of the cell to repair this damage and can therefore limit the effect of certain chemotherapeutic drugs.
The company hopes that its candidate CHK1 inhibitor could potentially treat a range of cancers including pancreatic, bowel and non-small cell lung cancer in combination with DNA-damaging chemotherapy drugs and/or radiotherapy.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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