Oxford and Newcastle, UK, 11 June 2015 – e-Therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX), the drug discovery and development company, is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) today at 10.30am. Ahead of this meeting, the acting Chairman and CEO, Professor Malcolm Young, will provide the following comments:
“Since our last Annual General Meeting, 12 months ago, the Company has shown accelerated progress across the business.
“With our cancer programme, ETS2101, we have established maximum tolerated dose with a good safety profile in our UK Phase 1 study, and we have now moved into a Phase Ib study in pancreatic and hepatocellular cancers at up to 15 locations in four countries. Since our year end results, the Phase Ib study has enrolled and dosed the first patient. “We have also been running a Phase Ia trial in the US in brain cancer and the last patient has now been enrolled. This cohort is being dosed at 36 mg/kg. One of these patients is presently on their seventh cycle at this dose level. Unlike the UK trial, there have been no dose-limiting toxicities determined at the current dosage, although the patients have experienced similar short-term side effects to those observed in the UK. We will provide a fuller update on this trial over the next few months.
“The major highlight of the year has been the striking productivity achieved by our discovery platform. We believe this is the culmination of the significant investment and enhancements we have made over the past two years, on the scientific principles that we pioneered over a longer period. Molecule selection and testing has now been undertaken across seven discovery projects. The data from these projects suggest that more than 25% of screened compounds were indeed active, and that among the active molecules many are as or more potent than any molecules previously reported. For example, initial results from our most recent project, which sought potent (<10µM) small molecule inhibitors of TNFa, a major inflammatory cytokine, produced a yield rate of potent molecules above 40%, even after initial toxicity screening. These yield rates are much higher than published rates for conventional drug discovery.
“We continue to be encouraged by the productivity of our discovery platform. We will provide a more complete summary of the various projects in discovery at the end of the half year.
“With the progress we are making both in the clinical programmes and in discovery, we expect another exciting year for the Company.”
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