LONDON, UK: ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL) announced that the project subject to the Evaluation Agreement announced on 16 September 2021 has been successfully completed and the Company has notified the academic team and IP & Licensing team at King’s College London, that it wishes to proceed to full in-licensing. The project was evaluated to confirm the impact of a peptide drug candidate against triple negative breast cancer.
ValiRx Plc is a life science company focusing on early-stage cancer therapeutics and women’s health.
The project was evaluated to confirm the impact of a peptide drug candidate against triple negative breast cancer. Over the past nine months, the candidate peptide was investigated with a battery of in vitro and in vivo tests by the Company, it has been concluded that there is good evidence of biological activity and a strong rationale for further development.
In addition to triple negative breast cancer, the tests illustrated promising data against ovarian cancer cells. The novel mechanism of action may allow further expansion into additional hard to treat cancer types.
Commercial terms for progression have been pre-negotiated with King’s such that the project will be placed into a subsidiary of ValiRx for the next stage of development. Documentation to support this is now under preparation.
Dr Suzy Dilly, CEO of ValiRx, commented: “It’s a really exciting step to confirm the first of our projects progressing from evaluation stage to full in-licensing. It has been a pleasure to work with both the scientific and IP & Licensing teams during this evaluation period, and we look forward to the relationship strengthening further during the preclinical development period.”
The King’s research is led by Professor Martin Ulmschneider, Professor of Computational Chemistry and the incoming Head of the Department of Chemistry who commented:
“Working together with ValiRx has been an incredible experience, and highlights the importance of finding great commercial partners that believe in translating new approaches from the laboratory towards clinical application for patient benefit. I am very excited about the journey forward with ValiRx.”