CHK1 Patent Update

RNS Number : 1937Y

Sareum Holdings PLC

22 January 2014

 



(AIM: SAR)

22 January 2014

SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC

("Sareum" or the "Company")

CHK1 Patent Update

Sareum (AIM: SAR), the specialist cancer drug discovery and development business, is pleased to announce that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued notification of a grant of a patent for one of the inventions associated with the CHK1 cancer programme.

The patent^* describes compounds, developed by Sareum and Cancer Research UK funded scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), that inhibit the function of CHK1 kinase enzymes and their potential to treat cancer. On 24 September 2013, it was announced that Cancer Research Technology Ltd and the ICR had licenced the CHK1 programme to the Cancer Research Technology Pioneer Fund (CPF) and that CPF, Sareum and BACIT ltd had entered into a co-development collaboration to advance the CHK1 programme into clinical trials. This particular patent provides limited territorial coverage but is part of a wider estate, including two further patent applications published in 2013, which if granted in its current form would provide broad geographical protection for the CHK1 programme currently being pursued. 

* Patent No. US 8,618,121

Sareum's CEO, Dr Tim Mitchell, commented: "Consistent with the usual business of the Company, the intellectual property estate that underpins the CHK1 programme continues to develop, protecting the asset and enhancing its commercial value".

Sareum Holdings plc
Tim Mitchell	01223 497 700
Sanlam Securities UK Limited (Nomad)
Simon Clements	020 7628 2200
Hybridan LLP (Broker)
Claire Noyce / William Lynne	020 7947 4350 / 4361
The Communications Portfolio (Media enquiries)
Ariane Comstive [e-mail]	020 7536 2028

Notes for editors:

About Sareum Holdings plc

Sareum is a drug discovery and development company, headquartered in Cambridge UK, that produces targeted small molecule therapeutics, focusing on cancer and autoimmune disease. Sareum aims to successfully deliver drug candidates for licensing to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies at the pre-clinical or early clinical trials stage.

Sareum operates an outsourced research model, working with collaborators (SRI International, the CRT Pioneer Fund and Hebei Medical University Biomedical Engineering Center) and a world-wide network of research providers.  Its research pipeline includes two programmes undergoing pre-clinical IND-enabling studies.

SKIL® (Sareum Kinase Inhibitor Library) is Sareum's drug discovery technology platform that has so far produced the Company's Aurora+FLT3, Aurora+ALK, VEGFR-3, FLT3 & TYK2 kinase cancer and auto-immune disease research programmes. SKIL® can also generate drug research programmes against other kinase targets.

Sareum Holdings plc is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visit www.sareum.co.uk

About CHK1 Kinase

CHK1 is important in controlling 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 potentiate the effect of certain chemotherapeutic drugs.  The candidate CHK1 inhibitor to be developed could potentially treat a range of cancers including pancreatic, bowel and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in combination with DNA-damaging chemotherapy drugs and/or radiotherapy. The inhibitor could also potentially treat certain neuroblastoma and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) types when dosed alone.

 

END

 

 

NRAFMGZMVMDGDZM