LONDON (Alliance News) - Sareum Holdings PLC Wednesday expressed "cautious optimism" for its future as it has reached a "critical stage" in its drug development programmes, although increased investment in its research programme caused its pretax loss to widen in the first half of its financial year.
The company posted a pretax loss of GBP749,000 for the six months to end-December, compared with a pretax loss of GBP375,000 a year earlier, which it attributed to increased investment in its research programme as they reach more advanced stages of development. It is not yet producing any revenue.
The specialist cancer drug business said its Checkpoint Kinase 1 programme, targeting lung, pancreatic, and other cancers, is nearing completion of toxicology studies. After these results it will submit an application to begin a Phase I clinical trial, which it expects to take place in the first half of its next financial year to end-June 2016, and will trigger a financial commitment of up to GBP795,500 from Sareum.
Sareum said it was also making good progress with its TYK3 and Aurora+FLT3 development programmes, having secured several key patents in some markets.
The company said that the next phase of its business could be "transformative in terms of the company reaching its goal of delivering a clinical-stage research programme. Later stage programmes achieve higher asset values and, while there is always risk with any drug development, there is also significant potential upside," the company said.
It is continuing to talk to licence partners on potential commercialisation of its compounds, and said that to maintain its product pipeline it is continuing to investigate sources of new research opportunities.
"We are extremely pleased with the progress that has been made in the last six months across all our programmes, and CHK1 in particular which is reaching a crucial phase of development as it nears its first in-human trials," said Chief Executive Officer Tim Mitchell in a statement.
Still shares in Sareum are trading down 16.7% at 0.375 pence Wednesday morning, its lowest level since February 6.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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Sareum (SAR)