Cancer treatments developer ValiRx (LON: VAL) says that it wants to in-licence a triple negative breast cancer project undertaken by King’s College London following a successful evaluation.
The share price jumped by 20.9% to 13p, although the share price is still 64.1% lower than at the start of the year. At the turn of the month, ValiRx raised £2.5m at 10p a share.
The evaluation confirmed the impact of a peptide drug candidate against triple negative breast cancer. This took nine months and “there is good evidence of biological activity. There are also signs that it could work for ovarian cancer cells.
Commercial terms have been pre-negotiated, and the project will be put into a new subsidiary. The evaluation cost around £75,000. Pre-clinical work on the project could cost around £500,000.
Cenkos expected ValiRx to have net cash of £817,000 at the end of 2022, but that was before an additional £1m was raised. That should be enough to fund the pre-clinical trial and to finance the rest of the business well into 2023. Although, it may depend on how other projects progress.
There are three potential treatments for cancer and sepsis that have partners or where one is being sought. A potential endometriosis treatment (VAL301) will be starting pre-clinical studies. This is a re-purposed version of the molecule used in the VAL201 potential prostate cancer treatment, where there is a letter of intent with TheoremRx.
There are two other potential assets. There is an agreement with the University of Barcelona concerning the investigation of drugs that can be used against Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Virus dependent cancers, such as uterine or pancreatic. There is around eight months to go on this programme and it will cost up to £100,000. There is also an agreement with Hokkaido University in Japan to evaluate a drug candidate for endometrial, pancreatic and bile duct cancers. There is another six months to go and it will also cost up to £100,000.
