Update on Developmental and Clinical Activity

RNS Number : 2269B

ValiRx PLC

02 April 2013

 

For release at 07:00 on 2 April 2013

ValiRx Plc

("ValiRx" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Update on Developmental and Clinical Activity

ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), a life science company in clinical development with cancer diagnostics and anti-cancer therapeutics for personalised medicine, today provides an update on its recent activities. The Company will also be presenting at the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research Conference in Washington starting on April 6^th 2013. The Conference is an annual event designed to showcase and bring together developments in all major areas of cancer research. There were nearly 17,000 participants in attendance last year. This is the first time ValiRx has been selected to give a presentation at the event, and the Company will be delivering two posters.

The Company has also been actively engaging with the scientific and investor community this winter, with a series of presentations at networking events in London, including One Nucleus on March 18^th and the London Stock Exchange on 27^th March. The Company has received positive feedback. In addition the Company has participated in scientific and industry events across the UK, Finland and Europe at which ValiRx has showcased its activities, and in particular in Oxford, London, Oulu and Turku in Finland, and in Barcelona and Brussels amongst other events in France and Denmark.

Satu Vainikka, Chief Executive Officer of ValiRx, said: "Our technical and commercial progress over the past year has been pleasing and we are well set for the future as we look to further establish ourselves at the forefront of personalised oncology development."

A number of key milestones have been achieved, in particular for VAL 201, the Company's leading anti-cancer therapeutic which has been in the clinical development phase for prostate cancer since the summer of 2012. Preclinical development work for various other indications has continued with many interesting potential therapeutic findings and the development of far greater depth of understanding and scientific background of the compound. No significant toxicological effects have been detected in regulatory studies thus far.

Having been in dialogue with the regulatory authorities, ValiRx is finalising the protocols and associated regulatory activities for the first-in-man studies, commonly termed phase 1a (expected completion in 2013, subject to suitable patient access), and Ib/IIa studies. The Company has made progress with all the steps required to develop VAL 201, which include engaging the primary and secondary clinical sites, securing the ancillary services and functions needed to complete the programme as well as selecting a manufacturer for the GMP production of VAL 201 with which the Company has previously worked, and the production process has been fully optimised and scaled to a level suitable for a full clinical programme.

The Company's other key compound - VAL 101 - a development programme for down regulation of rebellious genes, is at an advanced pre-clinical stage, having completed much of the work with the aid of a grant provided under the Eurostars programme. The Company also continues to develop companion diagnostics and is continuing efforts for several biomarkers associated with clinical and preclinical programmes though it's Finnish subsidiary.

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For more information, please contact:

ValiRx plc	Tel: [phone]
Dr Satu Vainikka	www.ValiRx.com
Hybridan LLP (Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Claire Noyce / 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:

      ValiFinn is the biomarkers and diagnostic development division

      ValiPharma is the therapeutics division with two embedded technologies primarily directed at the treatment of cancers.

 

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