Late-breaker abstract for SRA737 accepted for AACR

 (AIM: SAR) 15 March 2018

SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC

("Sareum" or "the Company")

Sareum notes Sierra Oncology announcement that a late-breaking abstract reporting SRA737 preclinical activity in CCNE1-driven and PARP inhibitor-resistant cancers has been accepted for AACR 2018 Annual Meeting

Sareum Holdings plc (AIM: SAR), the specialist cancer drug discovery and development business, notes that Sierra Oncology, the licence holder advancing clinical cancer candidate SRA737, announced that late-breaking preclinical results for SRA737 have been accepted for presentation in a poster at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2018 being held in Chicago, USA from 14-18 April. These data demonstrate that SRA737 has anti-tumour activity as a monotherapy in both CCNE1-driven cancer models and in cancer models resistant to poly ADP-ribose (PARP) inhibitor therapy, thereby warranting further investigation in human clinical studies.

Sierra Oncology recently announced that its ongoing Phase 1/2 monotherapy trial for SRA737 was being expanded to include an additional genetically-defined cohort, targeting enrolment of 20 patients with CCNE1-driven ovarian cancer. Approximately 20% of high grade serous ovarian cancers have an amplification of the CCNE1 gene, which is also prevalent across several other tumour types under evaluation in Sierra Oncology's ongoing clinical development programme, including non-small cell lung, colorectal, bladder and cervical cancer.

Sierra Oncology also recently announced it was planning to start a Phase 1b/2 combination trial in the UK of SRA737 with the PARP inhibitor niraparib in patients with prostate cancer, expected in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The full announcement from Sierra Oncology can be found at www.sierraoncology.com 

Details of the Poster

Poster Title: The novel oral Chk1 inhibitor, SRA737, is active in both PARP inhibitor resistant and CCNE1 amplified high grade serous ovarian cancers

Session Title: Late-Breaking Research: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics 3

Session Date and Time: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 from 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Central Time.

Location: Poster Section 43

Poster Board Number: 9

Permanent Abstract Number: LB-265

The Poster will be available 17 April 2018 at www.sierraoncology.com.

For further information, please contact: 

Notes for editors: 

About Sareum

Sareum is a specialist drug discovery and development company delivering targeted small molecule therapeutics, focusing on cancer and autoimmune disease, and generating value through licensing them to international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies at the preclinical or early clinical trials stage.

Its most advanced programme, SRA737, is a novel Checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) inhibitor licensed to NASDAQ-listed Sierra Oncology and in Phase 1/2 clinical trials targeting a range of advanced cancers. The key role of Chk1 in cancer cell replication and DNA damage repair suggests that SRA737 may have broad application as a targeted monotherapy and in combination with other oncology and immuno-oncology drugs in genetically defined patients.

Sareum is also advancing programmes to develop novel tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitors in autoimmune diseases and cancers, and Aurora+FLT3 inhibitors in haematological cancers, which are in the candidate selection and IND-enabling preclinical stages.

The Company's drug discovery technology platform (SKIL® - Sareum Kinase Inhibitor Library) has the potential to generate drug research programmes against other kinase targets.

Sareum Holdings plc is quoted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange, trading under the ticker SAR. For further information, please visit www.sareum.co.uk.

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