TIDMVAL
RNS Number : 7524E
ValiRx PLC
10 November 2020
("ValiRx", the "Company" or the "Group")
Agreement with Kalos Therapeutics
First project under new strategy to develop pipeline of early
stage projects
10 November 2020:
London, UK - ValiRx (AIM: VAL) a clinical stage drug development
company, announces today that it has entered into an agreement with
Kalos Therapeutics (Kalos), a US-based private biotechnology
company, to evaluate its peptide KTH222 as a drug candidate for
treating patients with ovarian cancer. This project underscores
ValiRx's new strategy to grow a pipeline of innovative, early-stage
projects in the area of oncology and women's health.
Under the terms of the agreement, ValiRx has the right to
perform a defined series of preclinical, cell-based assays to
consider the benefit of using KTH222 in combination with standard
of care treatment, Paclitaxel. At the conclusion of the estimated
six-month evaluation schedule (May 2021), ValiRx has the option to
enter a full licensing agreement, with KTH222 anticipated to be
integrated into a jointly owned ValiRx subsidiary for further
clinical development.
Kalos has completed lead optimisation and proof-of-concept
preclinical studies. Kalos will remain actively interested in the
programme, contributing scientific expertise during the evaluation
period and is expected to be an active partner in the subsequent
joint venture. In return, on entering the evaluation agreement,
Kalos has been pledged 10,000 ValiRx shares, subject to approval by
shareholders at the 2021 Annual General Meeting of the Company.
Dr Suzy Dilly, CEO of ValiRx commented, "I am delighted to
announce this new evaluation agreement with Kalos Therapeutics.
This project is an excellent example of the assets we are looking
to acquire; ovarian cancer sits squarely in our portfolio focused
on oncology and women's health, and the peptide nature of the drug
is within our development expertise. Importantly, this agreement
underscores our new strategy to identify and develop promising
early-stage therapies with the aim of progressing such assets to
the next stage of development."
George Colberg, CEO of Kalos Therapeutics added, "I'm looking
forward to working with the ValiRx team to further our development
of KTH222 into ovarian cancer. Our central ethos at Kalos has
always been to develop drugs that are kinder to patients, and we
were delighted to find a team with comparable ideals."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
For further information please contact:
ValiRx plc Tel: +44 (0) 2476 796496
www.valirx.com
Suzanne Dilly Suzanne.Dilly@valirx.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213
Adviser) 0880
Liam Murray / Jo Turner / Ludovico Lazzaretti
Peterhouse Capital Limited (Sole Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469
Duncan Vasey / Lucy Williams / Eran Zucker 0930
Optimum Strategic Communications Tel: +44 (0) 20 8148
Supriya Mathur/ Shabnam Bashir 3040
valirx@optimumcomms.com
About ValiRx
ValiRx accelerates the development of treatments in oncology and
women's health to improve patient lives. We provide the scientific,
financial and commercial framework towards enabling rapid
translation of innovative science into clinical development.
With our extensive and proven experience in research and drug
development, we select and incubate promising novel drug candidates
and guide them through an optimised process of development, from
pre-clinical studies to clinic and investor-ready assets.
Integrating science and business
We connect diverse disciplines across scientific, technical and
commercial domains, with the aim of achieving a more streamlined,
less costly, drug development process. We work closely with our
selected collaborators and leverage the combined expertise required
for science to advance.
Lead candidates from our portfolio are out-licenced or partnered
with investors through ValiRx subsidiary companies for further
clinical development and commercialisation.
https://www.valirx.com/
About KTH222
KTH222 is an 8 amino acid peptide that has been developed from
the study of Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP). By considering the
anti-cancer properties of the ANP protein, Kalos have produced a
short peptide that represents a fragment of ANP designed to confer
the therapeutically beneficial properties of ANP in an anti-cancer
treatment.
In ovarian cancer treatment we are evaluating whether in
combination with Paclitaxel, or similar standard of care drugs, a
patient could get an equivalent, or potentially longer lasting,
benefit with a lower dose of Paclitaxel. This is expected to result
in better tolerability of the Paclitaxel treatment, which in turn
could allow patients to remain on treatment for a longer period;
potentially improving the time for resistance to develop, and
conferring continued benefit after Paclitaxel treatment is halted.
In addition, further beneficial effects including the reduction of
ascites (a type of swelling that is particularly debilitating in
ovarian cancer) are expected due to the mechanism of action of
KTH222.
About Kalos Therapeutics
Kalos is pursuing a multi-phase strategy to reorient today's
therapeutic approach to cancer patients while driving changes to
transform therapeutic approaches for unmet and rare medical
conditions. Kalos has a lead compound KTH 222, which is more
promising than "standard of care" drugs with difficult to treat
cancer tumors. Kalos has entered the fight against COVID-19 with a
novel peptide therapeutic approach for the most vulnerable of
patients.
Kalos is devoted to treating the unmet needs of people living
with incurable diseases while doing so with less toxic and
debilitating side effects than current standard-of-care treatments;
thereby improving the quality of life for the patient and their
families. Kalos believes that by leveraging nature and the body's
mechanisms, they have created new, safer approaches to cancer and
diseases that affect the eye. Kalos has several applications for
animal health based on its eight-amino-acid and a 15-amino-acid
drug KTV-111. https://www.kalostherapeutics.com/ .
Caution regarding forward looking statements
Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed
to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are
identi ed by their use of terms and phrases such as "believe",
"could", "should" "envisage", "estimate", "intend", "may", "plan",
"potentially", "expect", "will" or the negative of those,
variations or comparable expressions, including references to
assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on
historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations
and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of
operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures
(including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof),
competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such
forward looking statements re ect the Directors' current beliefs
and assumptions and are
based on information currently available to the Directors. While management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Company will be those that it anticipates.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those in the forward-looking statements include risks relating
to unanticipated costs, liabilities or delays; failure or delays in
research and development programs; the safety and efficacy of the
Company's product candidates and the likelihood of clinical data to
be positive and of such product candidates to be approved by the
applicable regulatory authorities; unanticipated changes relating
to competitive factors in the Company's industry; risks relating to
the Company's capitalisation, resources and ownership structure,
the availability of sufficient resources for company operations and
to conduct or continue planned clinical development programs; the
outcome of any legal proceedings; risks related to the ability to
correctly estimate operating expenses; risks related to the ability
to project future cash utilisation and reserves needed for
contingent future liabilities and business operations; risks
related to the changes in market prices of the Company's ordinary
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