Sareum cancer drug candidate gets MHRA trial approval

Sareum Holdings was pressing ahead with one of its cancer drug programmes on Tuesday, having received approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the Clinical Trial Applications submitted for CHK1 inhibitor drug candidate CCT245737.

The AIM-traded specialist cancer drug discovery and development company said that, subject to final NHS approval, clinical trials were expected to begin in the second quarter of this year.

It planned two Phase I clinical trials in cancer patients in collaboration with co-development partners, the CRT Pioneer Fund.

One trial would use the drug candidate in combination with standard-of-care chemotherapy and would ultimately target lung and pancreatic cancer patients, while the other trial would use it as a single anti-cancer agent and would initially target various cancers.

"This approval for CCT245737 is another significant milestone along its path to being the first from our development pipeline to enter clinical trials,” said Sareum CEO Dr Tim Mitchell.

Sareum’s board also confirmed that it had satisfied a financial commitment of of £797,500 to the funding of the trials in December, and the submission of the Clinical Trial Applications triggered the receipt of a £200,000 success milestone payment from Cancer Research Technology to Sareum.