LONDON (Alliance News) - Tiziana Life Sciences PLC Thursday said it has licensed from Cardiff University scientists a new anti-cancer stem cell agent capable of targeting aggressive tumours forming from cells originating in the breast, pancreas, colon and prostate.
The agent, known as OH14, is an inhibitor of 'c-FLIP', which is a cellular-inhibitory protein. C-FLIP acts inside the cell by preventing the instructive cell death that occurs when a signal protein produced by neighbouring cells attaches to the target cell's surface, the biotechnology company said.
Suppression of programmed cell death, or 'apoptosis', is a recognised driver of cancer cell proliferation, thus by inhibiting this suppression it should be possible for cell death to occur and proliferation of cancer to be thwarted, Tiziana said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Tiziana will fund GBP50,000 per year for a research project at Cardiff University focused on building the structure activity relationships around OH14 and to improve the activity of this series of compounds.
Additionally, Tiziana will pay the university milestone payments up to around GBP2 million as well as royalties on sales of any licensed products developed as a result of the project. If certain milestones are achieved Tiziana will also pay 1% of its enterprise value to the university in the event of a trade sale of Tiziana to a third party, the company said.
This agreement is Tiziana's second with the university following the Bcl3 licensing agreement in January 2014.
"This agreement further strengthens our portfolio of exciting pre-clinical assets to complement our Phase II assets of milciclib and foralumab. We look forward to working with the university to identify further inhibitors of c-FLIP. We will then seek to develop the most promising of these into novel drugs for cancers, such as those of the breast, where up-regulation of this c-FLIP is believed to be important in cancer cell proliferation," Tiziana Chairman Gabriele Cerrone said in a statement.
Separately, Tiziana said Chief Financial Officer Phil Boyd has resigned from his post in order to focus on other opportunities. The company has commenced a search for an appropriate successor, but in the interim Boyd will continue to provide consulting services.
Shares in Tiziana were trading up 8.6% at 127.00 pence early Thursday.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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