LONDON (Alliance News) - Tiziana Life Sciences PLC Friday said it had "a successful first year" since listing on AIM in April 2014, and expressed confidence in progressing its clinical programmes to their "next respective value inflection points".
The company posted a pretax loss of GBP3.6 million for 2014, as a result of GBP755,000 in listing costs, GBP794,000 in research and development costs and GBP1.8 million in operating expenses.
The company's operating subsidiary was established in November 2013, founded on research from the European Cancer Stem Cell institute. It has identified the B-cell lymphoma 3 gene as a potential drug target, and entered into a deal with the institute for the exclusive worldwide license to any compound with potential therapeutic application against B-cell lymphoma 3.
Since then it has signed other agreements, getting a licensing agreement with TTFactor SRL in June 2014 for the use of 20 defined stem cell markets for patient stratification in breath cancer, and in December 2014 the company in-licensed foralumab from Novimmune SA, a phase II asset with potential applications in a number of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Following the year end the company entered into an exclusive licence with Nerviano Medical Sciences SRL for milciclib, which is currently in phase II clinical trials for thymic carcinoma in patients previously treated with chemotherapy, and in May signed a deal with the University of Cardiff to license its anti-cancer stem cell technology.
As a result of these deals, Tiziana says it now has two research projects and two clinical programmes, as well as research into a cancer stem cell diagnostic as "a solid foundation for the company's growth".
Following the year end it raised GBP2.6 million through a share placing, and in April entered into a deal to issue GBP6.1 million in convertible loan notes. It plans to use these funds to progress its four programmes.
"We significantly bolstered our pipeline, which now addresses several areas of significant unmet medical need in both cancer and inflammatory disease. Looking ahead, we are confident of being well positioned to progress these programmes to their next respective value inflection points," said Chairman and Founder Gabriele Cerrone in a statement.
Shares in Tiziana were trading down 0.7% at 144.04 pence Friday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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