Sareum shares drop on year-end update

AIM-listed drug development outfit Sareum (LON:SAR) has seen its share price drop by 11.83% to 0.31p (as of 13:45 BST) after it lost £1.45 million before tax over the year ended 30th June. The company has identified two distinct new molecules for further testing for treating autoimmune disorders and cancer as well as seeing some positive results from pre-clinical trials on previously identified.

CEO Dr. Tim Mitchell commented: “We believe our two TYK2/JAK1 inhibitors have the potential to address unmet needs in autoimmune diseases and cancer, through a novel mechanism that is clearly gaining increasing interest from both the pharmaceutical industry and financial investors.

“Given this positive background, we remain focused on applying our available resources as efficiently as possible to advance our first TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor towards clinical trials in 2020 and are continuing activities to determine the priority indications.

“The preliminary clinical data presented by Sierra on SRA737 at ASCO, alongside other evidence on the use of SRA737 or Chk1 inhibition in combination with PARPi and immuno-oncology approaches, have been very encouraging. These findings give us confidence that SRA737 has the potential to become an attractive new therapeutic option for patients in several important and underserved cancer indications. However, it is now clear that the next stages of development of SRA737 are dependent on Sierra being successful in securing a non-dilutive strategic option to enable its planned clinical and preclinical programmes to advance.

“We continue to believe, based on the very promising clinical data that has been generated to-date, that Sierra should have every chance of finding a suitable solution to progress the development of SRA737, which in due course would lead to Sareum receiving the milestones set out in the CPF/Sierra licensing agreement”.