Sareum Regulatory News (SAR)

16 Nov 2007 07:01

Sareum Holdings PLC16 November 2007 For immediate release 16 November 2007 Sareum Holdings plc ("Sareum" or "the Company") Appointment of Dr Alastair Riddell as Non-Executive Director Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discoverybusiness, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Alastair Riddell asNon-Executive Director with immediate effect. Alastair James Riddell, aged 58, was previously Chief Executive Officer ofParadigm Therapeutics Limited, the drug target discovery and development companythat was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in March 2007. He was also previously Chairman of Surface Therapeutics Limited, the drugdiscovery and development company that has now been acquired by Serentis. Prior to that Dr Riddell was the Chief Executive Officer of Pharmagene plc, thedrug discovery company, for seven years, where he raised £8.6 million in aprivate placement in 1999 and £41.7 million at IPO in July 2000. He has also held senior positions in international marketing, sales and generalmanagement in Amersham International and Centocor. He also previously directedthe medical departments of Celltech and Centocor Europe. Dr Riddell was Deputy Chairman of the BioIndustry Association (BIA) and was amember of the executive board of the BIA for 3 years. Dr. Riddell was apractising physician before entering the pharmaceutical industry over twentyyears ago. The directors of Sareum believe that Dr. Riddell brings a wide range of industryexperience to the Company and consider him a valuable addition to the Board. Commenting on this announcement, Sareum's Chairman, Dr Paul Harper, said: "I amdelighted to announce that Alastair has joined Sareum's Board. He is a seasonedbiotech entrepreneur with significant Board level experience and will beinstrumental in helping to steer the progress of Sareum." Dr. Riddell has, in the previous five years, been a director of the followingcompanies: Current directorships Previous directorshipsnone Surface Therapeutics Limited Paradigm Therapeutics Limited Pharmagene plc Pharmagene Laboratories Trustees Limited Pharmagene Therapeutics Limited BioIndustry Association The Company confirms there is no other information that falls to be disclosedunder Schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules. For further information: Sareum Holdings plc 01223 497700 Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000 Mary-Jane Johnson, Tim Anderson Grant Thornton Corporate Finance 020 7383 5100Philip Secrett, Colin Aaronson About Sareum Holdings plc Sareum Holdings plc is a structure-based drug discovery business headquarteredin Cambridge, UK. The Company was formed in August 2003 to discover new drugsfor the treatment of cancer. Sareum's unique approach aims to halve the time ittakes to discover new drug candidates. A structure-based approach to drug discovery relies on knowledge of thethree-dimensional structure of the proteins that cause disease. Once thestructure is known, potential drugs are designed to 'lock-in' to the proteinwith the aim of reversing or arresting a disease's progression. Knowledge ofthe structure of the potential drugs and how they 'lock-in' to their targetprotein assists greatly in the development of high-quality drug candidates.Determining structure is a complex task and requires leading-edge equipment andexperienced staff. Sareum's approach to structure determination utilises itsproprietary protein expression platform in order to produce multiple recombinantproteins that accelerate structure determination using x-ray crystallography. Once the structure is determined, the Company's innovative fragment screeningplatform is used to identify novel chemical templates designed to interact withthe target protein. Sareum then uses its high-throughput medicinal chemistryplatform to rapidly optimise these molecules and develop the most promising intopotential drug candidates. Sareum aims to successfully deliver drug candidates for licensing to largerpharmaceutical companies at the pre-clinical or early clinical trials stage. This is funded by provision of its specialist drug discovery capabilities topartners in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Sareum joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 andtrades under the symbol SAR. For further information, please visitwww.sareum.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange