Sareum inches closer to drug breakthrough

(ShareCast News) - Sareum Holdings was still running on the smell of an oily rag in its interim report on Wednesday, but the company was confident it was heading towards a breakthrough in its durgs under development.The AIM-traded cancer drug discovery and development business saw no revenue during the six month period, though it had £45,000 of other operating income.Its operating expenses grew 18.8% during the period to £449,000, though its share of losses of its associates shrunk 35.8% to £167,000.Sareum made a loss on its ordinary activities of £485,000, which was down 26.4% and in line with expectations."We have made considerable progress in the last six months," said CEO Dr Tim Mitchell."With clinical trials for the CHK1 programme expected to start before our financial year end, we are swiftly moving towards our goal of becoming a clinical-stage development company," he added.Operational highlights during the period included the completion of preclinical studies for the CHK1 candidate, in preparation for two planned clinical trials in cancer patients.The company published a description of CCT245737, the CKH1 clinical development candidate, in the high-impact Oncotarget journal.Sareum said US and Europe patents were granted for discoveries that underpinned the Aurora+FLT3 Kinase Inhibitors programme.It also demonstrated an effective reduction of symptoms when the TYK2 lead molecule was administered in a disease model of rheumatoid arthritis.At period end, cash in the company's bank was £335,000, down from £429,000, and the company's unspent investment in the CKH1 project was £841,000, up from £447,000 a year earlier.Post period end, Sareum submitted its application for CKH1 clinical trials, triggering a £200,000 milestone payment to the company.