N4 Pharma reports positive progress with SRI collaboration

N4 Pharma, a specialist pharmaceutical company focused on the development of Nuvec, a novel delivery system for cancer treatments, gene therapy, and vaccines, updated the market on its collaboration with SRI International on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded company said SRI had successfully completed crucial chemistry work, demonstrating that the Fox Three Molecular Guidance System (MGS) could be integrated with Nuvec without compromising its loading capability.

In this phase of the project, SRI attached an siRNA compound to the combined Nuvec and Fox Three MGS, confirming that the compound was effectively internalised into the targeted cell type.

That marked a significant step forward in the development of Nuvec as a precise delivery system for targeted therapies.

The next stage of the research would focus on verifying that the siRNA retains its functionality once inside the target cell - a critical step in proving the efficacy of this advanced delivery system.

“This is an exciting development for us as it clearly shows that Nuvec is capable of targeting specific cells via the addition of a relevant ligand, something the industry is actively looking for,” said chief executive officer Nigel Theobald.

“We will now start working on a combined marketing pitch deck allowing SRI and N4 Pharma to present this data and its implications to major pharma and biotech players that need a targeting delivery system for their nucleic acid programmes.”

At 0949 BST, shares in N4 Pharma were up 11.64% at 0.61p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.