REG - ValiRx PLC - Inaphaea award of HEIF Funding and PhD sponsorship

ValiRxAnnouncement

22/11/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 2398N  ValiRx PLC  22 November 2024

ValiRx plc

 

("ValiRx" or the "Company")

 

Inaphaea award of HEIF Funding and PhD sponsorship

 

London, UK - ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), a life science company focusing on
early-stage cancer therapeutics and women's health, provides the following
update from its wholly owned subsidiary Inaphaea BioLabs Limited ("Inaphaea").

Inaphaea is pleased to confirm it has agreed to collaborate on a project using
funds from The Open University's Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to
characterise the subtype and drug sensitivity of up to 12 Prostate Cancer
lines from Inaphaea's Patient Derived Cell ("PDC") bank. The project will
utilise The Open University's expertise in characterisation of Neuroendocrine
Prostate Cancer ("NEPC"), an incurable subtype of prostate cancer, to look for
characteristic markers of NEPC in Inaphaea's PDC models under normal and low
oxygen conditions, known to promote an NEPC like state.

In addition ValiRx will be co-sponsoring a PhD Studentship over the course of
four years at The Open University titled 'Deciphering the epigenetic
vulnerabilities of neuroendocrine prostate cancer through novel
patient-derived models'. The four-year programme includes further
characterisation and drug responsiveness of up to 12 of Inaphaea's Patient
Derived Prostate Cancer Cell systems as well as screening for novel epigenetic
targets as potential novel treatment opportunities.

 

Mark Eccleston, CEO of ValiRx commented "Inaphaea has over 30 Patient Derived
Cell models from prostate cancer patients, several with RNA-Seq data
available. These cells have been stabilised for in vitro passage, but they are
not characterised in terms of cancer subtype and drug sensitivity. Collecting
and publishing this information is essential to enable the use of these cell
lines by the scientific community. Hence, characterisation of the Inaphaea
prostate PDCs could add significant value to this collection and generate an
invaluable research tool for the NEPC community. However, this type of work
requires specialised expertise in preclinical cancer research that is beyond
the capabilities of Inaphaea."

Francesco Crea, Professor of Cancer Pharmacology at the Faculty of Science,
Technology, Engineering & Mathematics, The Open University commented
"Neuroendocrine prostate cancer is a newly recognised disease with no
effective therapy and median survival time shorter than one year. It is
estimated that a fifth of advanced prostate cancer patients will develop NEPC.
Hence it is of paramount importance to study the biology of this aggressive
disease and to identify viable therapeutic targets. This is hampered by the
lack of preclinical NEPC models. In particular, only one patient derived NEPC
cell line has been fully characterised and is available for experiments. Since
NEPC is a highly heterogeneous disease, more cell lines are needed to
recapitulate the full clinical spectrum of this deadly disease and to validate
findings."

The Directors of the Company take responsibility for this announcement.

*** ENDS ***

 

For more information, please contact:

 ValiRx plc                                        Tel: +44 (0) 2476 796496

                                                   www.valirx.com (http://www.valirx.com)

 Dr Mark Eccleston, CEO                            Mark.Eccleston (mailto:Mark.Eccleston@valirx.com) @valirx.com

                                                 (mailto:Mark.Eccleston@valirx.com)

 V Formation (Public Relations)                    +44 (0) 115 787 0206

                                                   www.vformation.biz (http://www.vformation.biz)

 Lucy Wharton - Senior PR Executive

 Sue Carr - Director                               lucy@vformation.biz

                                                   sue@vformation.biz
 Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Adviser)  Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 0880

 Liam Murray/ Ludovico Lazzaretti

 Shard Capital Partners LLP (Sole Broker)          Tel: +44 (0) 20 7186 9000

 Damon Heath

 

 

Notes for Editors

 

About ValiRx

 

ValiRx is a life science company focused on early-stage cancer therapeutics
and women's health, accelerating the translation of innovative science into
impactful medicines to improve patient lives.

ValiRx provides the scientific, financial, and commercial framework for
enabling rapid translation of innovative science into clinical development.

Using its extensive and proven experience in research and drug development,
the team at ValiRx selects and incubates promising novel drug candidates and
guides them through an optimised process of development, from pre-clinical
studies to clinic and investor-ready assets.

ValiRx connects diverse disciplines across scientific, technical, and
commercial domains, with the aim of achieving a more streamlined, less costly,
drug development process. The team works closely with carefully selected
collaborators and leverages the combined expertise required for science to
advance.

Lead candidates from ValiRx's portfolio are outlicensed or partnered with
investors through ValiRx subsidiary companies for further clinical development
and commercialisation.

ValiRx listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2006
and trades under the ticker symbol: VAL.

For further information, visit: www.valirx.com (http://www.valirx.com/)

 

Cautionary statement

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements.
Such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are
subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events
or results to differ materially from any expected future events or results
expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Persons receiving
this announcement should not place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable law, regulation or
accounting standard, the Company does not undertake to update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future
developments or otherwise.

 

 

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