New Patent Grant for GeneICE & VAL101 Update

RNS Number : 0039U

ValiRx PLC

15 December 2011

 

For release at 0700 on 15 December 2011

ValiRx Plc

("ValiRx" or the "Company")

New Patent Grant for GeneICE & VAL101 Update

New Patent Grant

ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), a life science company with a focus on cancer diagnostics and therapeutics for personalised medicine, is pleased to announce that GeneICE (or "Gene inactivation by chromatin engineering"), its proprietary gene-silencing technology, has recently received patent approval by the Canadian patent office. This follows the previously announced grant of patents for the technology across the world encompassing territories including the US, Europe and Australia.

ValiRx's GeneICE technology has been developed for silencing rebellious genes, which cause conditions such as cancer and various neurological problems.

VAL101 Update

Imperial College, University of London, from whom the technology was originally licensed, has been working in collaboration with ValiRx and is currently carrying out the late preclinical development of ValiRx's lead therapeutic, VAL101 with funding awarded from the prestigious Eurostars scheme.

Results from the preclinical programme have shown efficacy in killing cancer cells in several systems, as the Company has reported previously, and ValiRx is delighted to announce that its agreement with Imperial College has now been extended and that Imperial College will continue with further development of this cancer therapeutic work.  Stability and toxicology studies are currently underway.  The production of the VAL101 compound is going to plan and has been optimised and simplified, which by extension makes the compound cheaper to produce, thereby adding future value.

ValiRx is also pleased to report that the previously announced extension to its Eurostars grant for the development of  its GeneICE technology, is extending the Company's pipeline of potential cancer therapeutic compounds, with VAL101 progressing well in preclinical development.

Dr Satu Vainikka, CEO, commented:"I am very pleased with the progress we are seeing regarding VAL101 and our GeneICE drug candidates and the invaluable support we are receiving both from Imperial College and from Eurostars.  The filing of this latest patent extends our global geographic patent coverage and I believe it represents a value marker for the Company, as we further progress the GeneICE preclinical programme.

- ENDS -

For more information, please contact:

ValiRx plc	Tel: [phone]
Dr Satu Vainikka	www.ValiRx.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Adviser)	Tel:[phone]
Liam Murray / Avi Robinson
Hybridan LLP (Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Claire Noyce / Tim Goodman / Deepak Reddy
Peckwater PR	Tel: [phone]
Tarquin Edwards	[e-mail]

Notes for Editors

ValiRx Plc

ValiRx Plc is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel technologies and products in oncology therapeutics and diagnostics. The product focus is in the epigenomic analysis and treatment of cancer, but the technologies can be applied to other fields as well, such as neurology and inflammatory diseases.

The Company listed on AIM in October 2006 and is creating a portfolio of innovative products through investment in specific development projects. It actively manages projects within this portfolio as a trading company and is not an investment vehicle. The ValiRx business model spreads the risks of life science technology developments by minimising financial exposure and running a set of projects to defined commercial endpoints. This maximises returns to shareholders by adding value at the earlier stages where value increases per investment unit are the greatest.

The Company operates through the following divisional companies:

·       ValiMedix is the sales and distribution division of ValiRx

·       ValiPharma is the therapeutics division with two embedded technologies primarily directed at the treatment of cancers. Of particular note is GeneICE, ValiRx's technology for controlling rebellious genes, which was awarded a Eurostars grant to the value of €1.2 million to fund the development of the GeneICE products through preclinical stages in cancer treatments

Background to GeneICE & Eurostars

In June 2009, ValiRx, as the leading partner of an international consortium of three companies, was awarded a two year grant by Eurostar against substantial competition from across Europe, to develop its GeneICE technology ("GeneICE" or "Gene inactivation by chromatin engineering"), in which "rebellious genes", which cause problems such as cancer and potentially some neurological problems, are shut down or "put on ice".

The Eurostars programme is a EU grant scheme and EUrEKa Network initiative, created with the purpose of providing funding for market-oriented research and development activities by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises within the EU.

ValiRx successfully led the funding application with GenoSyst (Finland) and PentaBase (Denmark) under the 2nd call to the Eurostars joint Programme, for design optimisation, lead selection and pre-clinical testing of GeneICE. The application was rated second in the UK and Finland and first in Denmark, coming in 4th overall out of over 500 applicants within the EU wide scheme.

The technology is under license from Imperial College, University of London and it has been shown to be effective against several cancer cell lines, including prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and lung cancer. ValiRx retains all commercial rights for GeneICE from the programme.

The GeneICE development plan has four principal goals:

1.   Identification of specific genomic DNA sequences associated with proven cancer targets.

2.   Design and optimisation of the anti-gene system to silence the aberrant genes

3.   Evaluation of desired and potential off-target effects

4.   Pre-clinical development of an optimised lead therapeutic against a selected target

 

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