ERX Eirx Therap.

RNS Number:9395B
EiRx Therapeutics PLC
13 August 2007


For Immediate Release                                             13 August 2007


                                        
                              EIRX THERAPEUTICS PLC

                           ("EiRx" or "the Company")

           Euro362,000 grant supports cancer drug development programme

New chemistry capability advances EiRx from drug discovery to development, will
                   drive products towards clinical candidacy


Cork, Ireland - EiRx Therapeutics plc (AIM: ERX), the drug discovery company
developing targeted therapies for cancer, is pleased to announce that Enterprise
Ireland has agreed to fund the development of new cancer medicines through a
collaboration with Professor Anita Maguire, Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at
University College Cork ("UCC"), Ireland. The collaboration will establish a
medicinal chemistry team in Cork, under the supervision of Prof Maguire, to
optimise compounds emerging from the Company's EnPADTM drug discovery platform
and advance them towards clinical trials. The tie-up with Professor Maguire, who
is Director of UCC's prestigious Analytical & Biological Chemistry Research
Facility ("ABCRF"), has attracted funding through Enterprise Ireland's
Innovation Partnership scheme. The grant awards a total of Euro362,600 over two
years for personnel, materials and overhead costs, and will be reinforced by
EiRx with a further Euro139,000 in cash and dedicated personnel costs.


As a result of the collaboration, EiRx gains access to medicinal chemistry
skills and facilities via employment of two fully-funded postdoctoral chemists
within Professor Maguire's research group at the ABCRF. Professor Maguire will
lead in the scientific management and leadership of the research programme, and
EiRx will contribute a dedicated cancer biologist and management input. The
collaboration will work on optimisation of tumour-selective pro-apoptotic
molecules identified by EiRx's proprietary EnPADTM platform. Any optimised drug
candidates resulting will then be advanced to formal preclinical and clinical
evaluation.


The collaboration is expected to commence within weeks, and will focus on the
most promising examples from EiRx's panel of molecules with proven selective
biological activity against colon and breast cancer cell lines. The partners
will work over a two year period on the optimisation of multiple compound
series, from which preclinical leads will be selected in due course. Novel
intellectual property generated by the collaboration will be jointly held by the
partners. EiRx will assume responsibility for product development beyond the
lead optimisation stage, and will pay success-based development milestones of up
to Euro3M per new therapeutic candidate, plus royalties on sales, in return for
exclusive, worldwide rights over UCC's stake in jointly held IP.


Dr Colin Telfer, Chief Executive Officer of EiRx, stated: "Professor Anita
Maguire is a scientist of the highest standing whose scientific input will help
EiRx deliver next-generation cancer therapeutics to the clinic. We have
identified a lack of medicinal chemistry and lead optimisation skills as a
limiting factor on our ability to advance EiRx's drug development programmes,
and it is gratifying to have secured these skills though enlistment of Professor
Maguire's internationally recognised capabilities. Furthermore, we are delighted
that our efforts have secured the financial backing of Enterprise Ireland. We
see this initiative as the foundation stone of our own dedicated chemistry
capability, which we plan to develop from our operational base in Cork, and we
now look forward to optimising our drug candidates in preparation for clinical
evaluation."


Prof. Anita Maguire said in response: "I welcome the opportunity of working with
the scientists at EiRx on the development of their targeted anti-cancer
compounds. The Company's EnPADTM programme is generating compounds with
intriguing biological selectivity and apoptotic mechanism of action, and I am
confident that this alliance with the ABCRF will support the development of
these molecules towards clinical candidacy. The ABCRF was established to support
such industry collaborations, and I am particularly pleased to welcome EiRx as
one of the first Irish start-up companies to join our prestigious roster of
multinational industrial partners."



For further information, please contact:

EiRx Therapeutics plc                                      +353 (0)21 432 0847
Colin Telfer PhD, Chief Executive Officer
Grant Thornton Corporate Finance                           +44 (0)20 7383 5100
Philip Secrett / Colin Aaronson
Buchanan Communications                                    +44 (0)20 7466 5000
Tim Anderson / Mary-Jane Johnson



ENDS


Notes for Editors


About EiRx

EiRx Therapeutics (AIM: ERX) is a research-driven healthcare company developing
new targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer. EiRx is headquartered in
Cork, Ireland, conducts drug discovery from its laboratories in Cork and in
Aberdeen, Scotland, and has an initial focus on tumours arising due to anomalous
GSK/Wnt signalling, with particular relation to breast and colorectal tumours.


Since its foundation in 1999 EiRx has developed into a leader in the study of
functional pathways critical to cancer cell survival and growth, with a research
base encompassing apoptosis biology, translational medicine and the metabolic
basis of drug resistance in tumours. Using its state-of-the-art, proprietary
ALIBI(TM) platform, EiRx has gained new insights into the mechanisms underlying
a cell's decision to survive or die, and has implicated a range of novel genes
in pivotal control mechanisms such as the PI3K/AKT and GSK/Wnt survival
pathways. In combining functional validation technologies with unique clinical
resources such as the ACCRI-BANK tissue collection, EiRx is linking the
molecular activity of these targets with clinical consequences in patient
populations. By streaming validated targets into an innovative compound
screening approach EiRx is creating a product development engine specialising in
cancer target discovery, validation and targeted therapy.


For further information please see our website at http://www.eirx.com



About the ABCRF

The Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility (ABCRF) at University
College Cork is a multi-disciplinary research initiative, supported through the
HEA PRTLI programme, focusing on all aspects of novel pharmaceutical drug
design, development and analysis. The ABCRF is located in laboratories in the
new Cavanagh Pharmacy Building, together with the School of Pharmacy, at UCC. It
covers 1,200m2 and currently hosts 31 staff and 55 PhD students. Other
industrial collaborators include Eli Lilly, GSK, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, and
Pfizer.


For further information please see their website at http://abcrf.ucc.ie/



About the Innovation Partnership Scheme

The Innovation Partnerships Initiative is a non-competitive open call funding
mechanism established to assist Irish Industry and Third Level Colleges to work
together on cutting edge research projects. The programme is supported under the
National Development Programme and is co-funded by the European Regional
Development Fund.



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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