Sareum Regulatory News (SAR)

25 Jul 2005 07:00

Sareum Holdings PLC25 July 2005 For immediate release 25 July 2005 SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC, THE INSTITUTE OF CANCER RESEARCH AND CANCER RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY LTD Major Cancer Drug Discovery Collaboration Sareum Holdings plc (Sareum) (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drugdiscovery and services business, The Institute of Cancer Research (TheInstitute), Europe's leading cancer research centre, and Cancer ResearchTechnology Limited (CRT), the oncology focused development and commercialisationcompany, are pleased to announce that they have entered into a jointcollaboration to develop novel cancer therapeutics. The collaboration will establish a joint research team to target a biochemicalpathway, responsible for resistance to the effectiveness of traditional cancertherapeutics, found in more than half of solid tumour types. The team will worktowards developing cancer treatments with valuable benefits for cancer patientsincluding lower doses of existing therapies, fewer adverse side-effects andefficacy where tumours currently do not respond to chemotherapy. Sareum will use its expertise in high-throughput protein expression, structuredetermination computational and medicinal chemistry to identify novel compoundsusing its innovative Template Screening technology. Combining Sareum'sexperience with the vast expertise in drug development at The Cancer Research UKCentre for Cancer Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research, this jointcollaboration plans to rapidly develop such compounds into more effective cancertherapies. Under the terms of the agreement, drug candidates developed by the collaborationare intended to be licensed by CRT to pharmaceutical partners for clinicaltrials. Payments, milestones and royalties arising from any partnering dealswill be shared between Sareum, The Institute and CRT. Commenting on the agreement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell,said: "I am delighted that we have entered into this major collaboration withsuch prestigious partners in the field of cancer. The collaboration with TheInstitute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technology has huge potentialin the field of cancer drug discovery and I look forward to taking novel cancertherapies developed in this collaboration to the clinic." Professor Paul Workman, Director of The Cancer Research UK Centre for CancerTherapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "These are very excitingtimes in cancer drug development. This collaboration will bring together manyyears of expertise and experience in targeting cancer, which we hope willultimately allow us to use existing drugs more effectively and hence improvecancer management." Dr Keith Blundy, COO of Cancer Research Technology Limited said: "Thispartnership further exemplifies CRT's role in bringing benefit to cancerpatients by forming partnerships between cancer researchers and industry toaccelerate the development of new therapies. Sareum's technologies and theexpertise of ICR will add significantly to the rate of progress of theprogramme." For further information: Sareum Holdings 01223 497700 Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer The Institute of Cancer Research 020 7153 5359Nadia Ramsey, Science Press Officer Cancer Research UK 020 7242 0200Sophy Gould, Senior Press Officer Cancer Research Technology Limited 0207 679 3640Nick Wells, Marketing and Business Manager Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000Mark Court, Mary-Jane Johnson Notes for editors: About Sareum Holdings plc Sareum Holdings plc is a specialist structure based drug discovery businessheadquartered in Cambridge, UK. The Company was formed in August 2003 todiscover new drugs for the treatment of cancer 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 template-molecule x-ray screening technology to identify new chemicalentities that interact with the target protein. Sareum then uses itshigh-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to rapidly synthesise furthermolecules 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. Sareum intends to license out itsinternally generated drug candidates at the Phase I or Phase II clinical trialsstage. 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 About The Institute of Cancer Research The Institute of Cancer Research is Europe's leading cancer research centre withexpert scientists working on cutting edge research. It was founded in 1909 tocarry out research into the causes of cancer and to develop new strategies forits prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. For more information please visitwww.icr.ac.uk The Institute works in a unique partnership with the Royal Marsden NHSFoundation Trust, forming the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe. TheInstitute is unrivalled in its record in cancer drug discovery and development. The Institute is a charity that relies on voluntary income. The Institute is ahighly cost-effective major cancer research organisation with over 90p in every£ directly supporting research. About Cancer Research Technology Limited Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) is a specialist technology transfer anddevelopment company which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research forthe benefit of cancer patients. CRT is wholly owned by Cancer Research UK, thelargest independent funder of cancer research in the world. CRT works closelywith leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protectintellectual property arising from their research and to establish links withcommercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing ofnew cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies.Further information about CRT can be found at www.cancertechnology.com. Cancer Research UK is the world's leading charity dedicated to research on thecauses, treatment and prevention of cancer. The charity supports the work of3,000 scientists, doctors and nurses in over 80 academic centres across the UK,with an annual scientific spend of more than £213 million. Further informationabout 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