Business
Co-development Agreement to Advance CHK1 Programme
Co-development Agreement to Advance CHK1 Programme.
About this update from Sareum Holdings Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Co-development Agreement to Advance CHK1 Programme24 September 2013SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC(\"Sareum\" or \"the Company\")SAREUM ENTERS AGREEMENT TO ADVANCE CHK1 PROGRAMMESareum (AIM: SAR), the specialist cancer drug discovery business, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a co-development agreement with the Cancer Research Technology Pioneer Fund (CPF) and London Stock Exchange-listed investment company, BACIT Ltd, to advance the Checkpoint Kinase 1 (CHK1) inhibitor candidate through pre-clinical development and Phase 1 clinical trials.Under the agreement, CPF obtains worldwide rights to the preclinical CHK1 inhibitor programme and is responsible for future development and commercialisation, funded by CPF, BACIT and Sareum. Sareum and its original collaboration partners, The Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technology Ltd, are entitled to an up-front fee plus success milestone and royalty payments. On successful sub-licencing of the programme, Sareum will also be entitled to a share of sub-licence payments proportional to its investment under the agreement. Financial terms of the licence are not disclosed. As part of the agreement, Sareum expects to commit up to £800,000 to the programme in its current financial year. As outlined in Sareum's Research Update dated 18 February 2013, options for the future development of the CHK1 programme involved, either to continue licence discussions with third parties, or to progress research further before licencing the programme at a later stage. The Company believes that entering into this agreement is likely to provide a greater return to shareholders given the promising pre-clinical results the CHK1 candidate has demonstrated so far, including the compound's potential to be administered orally in future clinical studies.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/...