1st Sep 2025 14:02
(Alliance News) - ValiRx PLC on Monday said it has received a notice of allowance from the European Patent Office for "nanoparticle for anti-cancer peptides and uses thereof", a key patent application for majority-owned subsidiary Cytolytix Ltd.
ValiRx is an Essex, England-based life sciences company focusing on early-stage cancer therapeutics and women's health.
The firm said this follows the allowance of claims within the European patent application "polyleucine-based peptides as anti-cancer agents", for which ValiRx has requested an accelerated examination.
It requested this to speed up notice of allowance after the filing of "routine amendments to the patent description".
The two patent families represent the core intellectual property for Cytolytix, while ValiRx said it is also seeking additional protection for new inventions which are currently under validation.
"We are pleased to receive the European Patent Office's notice of allowance and acknowledgement of patentable claims for Cytolytix's core intellectual property as we build our proprietary position in the oncolytic peptide space. We are expanding these core patents with new IP developed using in house expertise at ValiRx and Inaphaea and we expect to strengthen our portfolio with new filings in the coming weeks," said Chief Executive Officer Mark Eccleston.
ValiRx added that Cytolytix has completed development and evaluation of its second-generation delivery platform, and scheduled materials for evaluation in Screenin3D's UpScale3D lab-on-a-chip platform.
Cytolytix's peptides have shown to be effective in prostate cancer with preliminary results developed through a collaboration with the Open University.
CEO Eccleston said: "In addition, we are rapidly progressing with the in-vitro and ex-vivo validation of the platform by leveraging the combined experience and resources of our tCRO, Inaphaea Biolabs, with the advanced non animal 3D-culture testing capabilities we have brought in through our capability partners. Development of triple negative breast cancer models on Screenin3D's UpScale3D lab-on-a-chip platform was a key strategic objective for ValiRx's cytolytic peptide program through our partially owned subsidiary, Cytolytix. We are further extending these capabilities to include VoxCell's proprietary fully perfusable vascularised 3D tissue culture models as we announced in July 2025.
"These advanced models are critical in assessing the cell killing efficacy of our oncolytic peptides as well as their potential to engage the host immune system. The potential immune boost feature of this class of therapeutics could significantly enhance both efficacy and durability of response."
Shares in ValiRx were flat at 0.65 pence in London on Monday afternoon.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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