VAL201 Update

RNS Number : 2207L

ValiRx PLC

28 July 2011

 



28 July 2011

ValiRx Plc

("ValiRx" or the "Company")

Successful Progress in Preclinical Study of Lead Therapeutic Compound VAL201

in Collaboration with Oxford University

VAL201 shown to prevent proliferative tissue growth in live studies with reduced side effects

ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), a life science company with a focus on cancer diagnostics and therapeutics for personalised medicine, is pleased to report that a further late preclinical study into the development of one of its lead therapeutics, VAL201, carried out in collaboration with Oxford University, has firmly established a potentially important role for VAL201 in treating hormone induced refractory prostate cancer and other conditions of hormone induced uncontrolled cell growth including breast and ovarian cancer, among others. These conditions currently have high medical needs,

This progress follows on from ValiRx's agreement with Oxford University, as announced on 14 April 2011, to accelerate the development of this lead therapeutic and to study VAL201's therapeutic potential for additional indications.

In the studies thus far, VAL201 has been shown to prevent cancerous growth in live models, with two proliferative conditions and in a further three conditions in cancer cell lines.  The response has been shown to be dose dependent. Furthermore, ValiRx is also pleased to note that those models treated with VAL201 remain fertile and produce normal offspring and, unlike many other traditional therapies, no serious side effects have so far been seen.

In the models seen thus far, treatment with VAL201 potentially leaves other hormone induced activities working normally, therefore reducing side effects such as lowered sexual function and infertility. As such, VAL201 shows promise for superior therapeutics for hormone induced abnormal growth in a number of conditions.

Following the successful completion of this study, both ValiRx and Oxford University now look forward to continuing the next stage of VAL201's preclinical programme to support the regulatory requirements prior to entering clinical trials.

Dr Satu Vainikka, CEO, commented: "I am delighted with the progress we are seeing, both in terms of the development of VAL201 and the benefit of our collaboration with Oxford University.  The market for treatments against hormone induced tumour growth and associated conditions is huge* and these conditions have significant unmet clinical need.  I am very excited by the results of this first study and by the further potential markets and conditions that VAL201 and ValiRx Plc can address."

- 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
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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