E-therapeutics PLC (LON:ETX) said forming partnerships and deals will be key priorities for the coming year, including for its new RNA interference (RNAi) platform as this is an area currently commanding significant and attractive deals.
The past year, while challenging, has opened up new opportunities for the computational drug discovery company, with the expansion into RNAi as a therapeutic modality, the formation of a new collaboration with Belgian life sciences company Galapagos, extension of a partnership with Danish giant Novo Nordisk and the initiation of a project to identify approved and known drugs that could rapidly be repositioned for the treatment of COVID-19.
New chief executive Ali Mortazavi, who joined in October and now has a new chairman and finance director alongside him, said the most significant challenge the company faced last year was having sufficient capital to allow it to realise the opportunities facing it.
He said the combined equity fundraises of £13.2mln completed during the year “enable the next stage of growth and value creation for the company.
“We have begun to build momentum as we move forward with our strategy delivering scientific progress as well as current and prospective partnerships.”
As well as expanding e-therapeutics computational platform collaborations, Mortazavi said his priorities for the current year are to establish world-leading expertise in the area of hepatocytes, based on the company’s RNAi platform, which recently led to the filing of a patent application relating to liver gene silencing.
Identifying other novel hepatocyte-expressed targets and beginning full RNAi in vivo studies and platform partnerships rounds off his main targets for the period.
For the past year ending 31 January, as a company that is still at the foothills of revenue generation, with a top line of £0.3mln, an operating loss of £4.5mln was reported, having spent £2.7mln on research & development.
Cash stood at £13mln.