e-Therapeutics pleases with pipeline progress

News from biotech company e-Therapeutics about the progress of two clinical trials for its cancer drug pleased the markets on Tuesday. The AIM-listed company provided first findings for the company's ETS2101 drug candidate in Phase I trials in the US for patients with brain cancer and in the UK for patients with solid tumours.Initial data from trials, where 12 patients have been enrolled so far, showed a decrease in tumour size for one patient with an "untreatable" tumour, while no serious adverse events have been attributed to the drug so far.The company, which in February raised £40m to fund its clinical developments, unveiled its preliminary results for the year to January 31st where net losses of £4.2m were slightly better than forecasts, but £1.0m higher than the previous year due to the company's increasing investment in drug discovery and development.E-Therapeutics, which discovers new medicines using its proprietary 'network pharmacology' computer technology, said it expects key Phase I results from the US trials for brain cancer in the third quarter of the year and those for UK trials for solid tumours in the early 2014. Chief Financial Officer Dr Daniel Elger said the company was increasing investment in research and development. "Our recent £40m fundraising leaves us even better placed to pursue our goals, with a cash runway that now extends to a potential partnering deal for our lead cancer drug and resources sufficient to generate a diversified portfolio of assets over the next three-four years."House broker Panmure Gordon was excited to hear about the "strong success" in early stages of the trial."This sector is not used to success so the pessimists will scream sample size, chance event and other such instruments of caution," admitted analyst Savvas Neophytou. "They would be right from a purist point of view but the fact remains one particular patient who had ran out of all therapeutic options is still alive as a result of ETS2101 and that is a significant achievement for the company's first shot at goal." He said he believed this news mitigated development risk in E-Therapeutics and so he reducing the project's discount rate to 18%, from 20% previously.Shares in e-Therapeutics were up 8.0% at 33.60p at 13:41 on Tuesday.OH