Sareum Holdings Plc (LON:SAR) shares were in demand on Friday morning after Sierra Oncology, the US firm which has licensed Sareum’s SRA737 checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) inhibitor candidate, published new data overnight.
Chk1 controls a cancer cell's response to DNA damage, which could be caused by the disease itself or intentionally caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
In data presented at an industry conference in Miami on Thursday, SRA737 demonstrated “clear anti-tumour activity” in a preclinical model of small cell lung cancer.
READ: SRA737 could have potential in ovarian cancer
“We are encouraged by the findings of this study, which was presented at AACR,” said Sareum chief executive Tim Mitchell.
“It showed SRA737 activated the innate immune signalling Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) pathway and demonstrated clear anti-tumour activity in an immunocompetent preclinical model of small cell lung cancer.
“These are important findings as SCLC remains a significant unmet need and one where immunotherapies have yielded limited efficacy. These encouraging preclinical results highlight an additional potential opportunity for SRA737 that warrants further evaluation.”
Research house Hybridan added: “This data bodes well for a potential immunotherapy combination study in humans, which if successful further augments the potential scale of future royalties to Sareum, as well as the likelihood of further success milestones.”
Shares rose 5.7% to 0.74p in early deals on Friday.