Race Oncology Ltd (ASX:RAC) has received a Research & Development (R&D) Tax Incentive refund of $2,787,473 from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for the financial year ended June 30, 2025 (FY2025).
The refund has been provided under the Federal Government’s R&D Tax Incentive program, which is designed to encourage industry investment in innovation by offering a refundable tax offset of up to 43.5% on eligible R&D expenditure.
Race expects to receive an additional refund for FY2025 in early 2026, following the ATO’s final assessment of the company’s eligible overseas R&D activities.
On September 2, 2024, Race received a positive determination from AusIndustry regarding the eligibility of its overseas R&D activities and was issued an R&D Tax Incentive Advance and Overseas Finding Assessment of up to $20,081,627 over three years.
This advance finding is a binding, underwritten commitment from the Australian Government that confirms Race’s R&D activities are considered to be of national interest and extends the 43.5% R&D rebate to eligible R&D work conducted outside Australia between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026.
Ethics approval
The money will further assist Race after the company received human ethics approval to begin its HARNESS-1 Phase 1a/b lung cancer trial of RC220 in combination with osimertinib. The approval clears the way for the study to commence recruitment at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.
The St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) has signed off on the trial, which will assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of RC220 (E,E-bisantrene, RCDS1) in combination with osimertinib (Tagrisso®; AstraZeneca) in adult patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harbouring activating epidermal growth factor receptor mutations (EGFRm).