Small cap biotech stocks led the way on Monday, with cancer research specialist Sareum Holdings Plc (LON:SAR) the stand-out as it told investors it had successfully demonstrated the potential of a leukaemia treatment.
Its new drug candidate – known as a ‘TYK2 inhibitor’ – is designed to tackle a rare and difficult-to-treat form of the disease and was assessed as part of a feasibility study to see whether it might work in t-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which occurs in late childhood and early adolescence.
Sareum's compounds were well tolerated, presented good exposure to plasma and tumour tissue and showed a dose-dependent effect on a biomarker of TYK2 inhibition and tumour reduction of up to 80%.
The early-stage work was supported by government backed Innovate UK and a grant of £140,000.
Meanwhile, Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd (LON:FARN) today said patient recruitment has started for a pivotal Japanese clinical trial for its treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Faron’s Japanese licensing partner, Maruishi Pharmaceutical, has recruited the first patient in the Japanese Phase III pivotal clinical trial for the treatment of ARDS.
Stem-cell services specialist WideCells Group Plc (LON:WDC) updated on its strengthening at its corporate headquarters and stem cell storage facility in Manchester.
The company has made three key appointments across its three core divisions – Matthew Lord joins as group marketing manager, Frances Dutton is the new group account manager, and Damilola Aboyeji has been appointed group lab manager.
High spec renovation work is also taking place for the ‘clean room’ in the cell storage facility at WideCell's division at the University of Manchester Innovation Centre.
Antibodies developer Abzena plc (LON:ABZA) has beefed up its senior management team in the US.
John Manzello and Sven Lee have taken up senior executive appointments with Abzena in the US as president, Abzena US, and chief business officer, respectively.
Ergomed Plc’s (LON:ERGO) told investors that its co-development partner plans to float on a stock market.
Dilaforette is to relaunch with the new name of Modus Therapeutics Holding AB, and it plans to raise fresh capital with an initial public offering and a rights issue. Together Ergomed and Modus (Dilaforette) have Sevuparin, a potential treatment for sickle cell disease, in a Phase 2 clinical trial.
Elsewhere, Secure payments and customer contact group Eckoh PLC (LON:ECK) showed it continues to grow in the US, securing three contracts worth over US$2.5mln over the next three years.
Small cap mining group Savannah Resources Plc (LON:SAV) has moved closer to its goal of production in 2017 - by starting the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for its Mahab 4 and Maqail South deposits in Oman.
Lodging the EIA is an important milestone in developing the combined deposits, which lie in the Block 5 licence, as an integrated operation.
Sunrise Resources Plc (LON:SRES) has unveiled drilling results from the Bay State Silver Project, in Nevada, which confirm high grade material in the Chihuahua vein. It also carried out underground sampling in the programme that aimed to assess extensions of the Chihuahua vein system in the vicinity of the historic mining operations.
Wolf Minerals Limited (LON:WLFE) has renegotiated the terms of the financing for its Drakelands tungsten mine in Devon, England.
The plan is to continue the implementation of modifications at the Drakelands plant to allow the company to work towards a declaration of commercial production. To date this has been hindered because Wolf has encountered a finer-than-expected ore at Drakelands, and because the tungsten price has remained weak.
According to Wolf’s managing director Russell Clark, the company is “now starting to see improvements in production.”