(Alliance News) - Sareum Holdings PLC on Tuesday said two milestone payments from Sierra Oncology Inc are likely to be delayed, possibly past the end of its financial year ending June 2020.
Shares in Sareum were down 19% at 0.35 pence in London in late morning trade.
Speaking at its annual general meeting, Dewe Rogerson, chair of cancer drug discovery and development firm Sareum, said the firm is still "cautiously optimistic" about its project with Sierra to develop SRA737 as a cancer drug.
This is despite Sierra's analyst presentation making it clear SRA737 is no longer a core part of Sierra's plans. Sierra has said it is looking to on-licence SRA737 to a third parts, with a licencing exercise already launches.
"At this stage, we have no immediate visibility on the state of progress, nor any terms which might be sought in the on-licensing deal," said Rogerson.
However, the timing of around USD5 million worth of near-term milestone payments due from Sierra are likely to be delayed. This delay could even last beyond Sareum's financial year end.
At present, Sareum is focused on advancing development of drug candidate SDC-1801 in autoimmune diseases and SDC-1802 in cancer. Human trials of SDC-1802 are to start in late 2020, "subject to successful progress and financing".
Rogerson said "good progress" had been made "despite the delays in the SRA737 programme" and it will continue its drug development programmes going forward.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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Sareum (SAR)