Shares in Sareum Holdings PLC (AIM:SAR) climbed 9% on Monday after the biotech group announced promising preclinical results and an update on its cancer drug programme.
The company said it has identified several TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor compounds capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, a crucial step in developing treatments for neuroinflammatory conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from harmful substances but also makes drug delivery much more difficult, meaning Sareum’s findings could open the door to new therapies.
Separately, Sareum confirmed it has secured the full clinical dataset for SRA737, its experimental cancer drug.
A strategic review is underway to decide whether to license the drug out to a partner or continue development in-house.
Sareum, listed on London’s AIM market under the ticker SAR, focuses on developing kinase inhibitors for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
The shares rose 1.44p to 17.44p.