Sareum Regulatory News (SAR)

20 Jun 2006 07:03

Sareum Holdings PLC20 June 2006 For immediate release 20 June 2006 SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC ("Sareum" or the "Company") Collaboration with Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug discoverybusiness, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a collaborativeagreement with Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (Sirtris), based in Cambridge, MA, USA.In this collaboration, Sareum will apply its expertise in high throughputprotein expression, purification and structure determination to accelerate drugdiscovery research at Sirtris. This information is invaluable in supporting Sirtris' scientists to develop newand improved therapeutics aimed at promoting patients' natural defenses againstdiseases of ageing, such as metabolic and neurological disease. In return,Sareum will receive undisclosed research fees and success milestone payments. Commenting on the agreement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell,said: "We are very pleased that Sirtris has selected to work with Sareum astheir partner in protein structure determination. This is an additional andimportant collaboration that Sareum has entered into in the US, which is now ourmajor market, and provides further evidence that Sareum is a worldwide partnerof choice for structure-based drug discovery." For further information: Sareum Holdings plc 01223 497700 Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000 Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson Notes for editors: About Sareum Holdings plc Sareum Holdings plc is a structure-based drug discovery business headquarteredin Cambridge, UK. Sareum Limited was formed in August 2003 to discover new drugsfor the treatment of cancer and to provide a range of drug discovery services tothe pharmaceutical industry. 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 of thestructure of the potential drugs and how they 'lock-in' to the protein permitsthe best potential drug to be discovered. Determining structure is a complextask and requires leading-edge equipment and experienced staff. Sareum'sapproach to structure determination is to produce multiple recombinant proteinsprimarily through a baculovirus expression system and to determine theirstructure using x-ray crystallography. When the structure is determined, the Company's innovative Template Screeningplatform is used to identify novel chemical starting material designed tointeract with the target protein. Sareum then uses its high-throughput medicinalchemistry platform to rapidly optimise these molecules and develop the mostpromising into potential drug candidates. Sareum provides its specialist drug discovery capabilities to partners in thepharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The Company aims to successfullydeliver: Programmes for complete gene-to-candidate structure-based discovery;projects to accelerate or improve the productivity of specific activities; anddrug candidates for licensing at the Phase I or Phase II clinical trials stage. 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