Sareum Regulatory News (SAR)

11 Apr 2005 07:00

Sareum Holdings PLC11 April 2005 For immediate release 11 April 2005 SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC ("Sareum" or "the Company") Cancer Research Technology and Sareum announce extension of Research Collaboration Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the structure-based drug discovery and servicesbusiness, is pleased to announce that Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT),the oncology focused technology transfer and development company, have extendedtheir collaborative agreement with Sareum for a further 6 months. On 6 December 2004 Sareum announced that it had agreed to provide, on afee-for-service basis, computational chemistry expertise to support several ofCRT's therapeutic discovery programmes in cancer. The original agreement wassigned for 6 months and financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Under the same terms of the agreement, Sareum will provide computationalchemistry expertise to CRT's therapeutic discovery programmes in cancer for afurther six months. Commenting on the announcement, Sareum's Vice President of Chemistry, Dr JohnReader, said: "We are delighted that Cancer Research Technology have decided tocontinue accessing our computational chemistry expertise. We seek to deliverhigh quality research services to our partners, and building and maintainingthese relationships is of great importance to us." CRT's Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Dr Tony Raynham, commented: "The success ofSareum's structure based capabilities in accelerating CRT's drug discoveryprogrammes has led us to extend our existing partnership". For further information please contact: Sareum Holdings +44 (0) 1223 497700 Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer Cancer Research Technology Limited 0207 679 6728 Tony Raynham, Head of Medicinal Chemistry Buchanan Communications +44 (0) 20 7466 5000 Mark Court, Mary-Jane Johnson Notes for editors: 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 and inflammation and to provide a range of drugdiscovery services to the pharmaceutical industry. Sareum's unique approach aimsto halve the time it takes to discover new drug candidates. Structure-based drug discovery involves the determination of a disease causingprotein's three-dimensional structure. Once the structure is known, novelchemical entities are designed to 'lock-in' to the protein with the aim ofreversing or arresting a disease's progression. Sareum's approach to structure based drug discovery is to produce multiplerecombinant proteins primarily through a baculovirus expression system;determine their structure using x-ray crystallography; and then use theCompany's computational chemistry expertise to create virtual, focused librariesof new chemical entities designed to interact with the target protein. Sareumthen uses its high-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to rapidly synthesisethese molecules and develop the most promising into potential drug candidates. Sareum offers its accelerated drug discovery capabilities on a fee basis to thepharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and has recently signedcollaborative agreements with Inpharmatica Ltd. and Millennium Pharmaceuticals,Inc. Sareum also intends to license out any internally generated drug candidatesat the Phase I or Phase II clinical trials stage. Sareum joined the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange inOctober 2004. About Cancer Research Technology Limited. Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) is a specialist technology transfercompany which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefitof cancer patients. CRT works closely with leading international cancerscientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising fromtheir research and to establish links with commercial partners. CRT facilitatesthe discovery, development and marketing of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines,diagnostics and enabling technologies. CRT is wholly owned by Cancer ResearchUK, the largest independent funder of cancer research in the world. Furtherinformation about CRT can be found at www.cancertechnology.com Cancer Research UK is Europe's leading cancer charity, dedicated to researchinto the causes, prevention and treatment of cancer. The charity supports thework of 3,000 scientists, doctors and nurses in over 80 academic centers acrossthe UK, with an annual scientific spend of more than £213 million. Furtherinformation about Cancer Research UK can be found at www.cancerresearchuk.org This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange