Sareum - Specialists in Structure-based Drug Discovery - News & Events

Sareum (AIM: SAR), the specialist cancer drug discovery business, is pleased to announce its half-yearly results for the six month period ended 31 December 2009.

Financial highlights

· Cash at bank at period end was £740,000 (2008: £531,000)

· Loss on ordinary activities (after taxation) of £296,000 (2008: £848,000)

· Placing of £815,000 (gross) in the period to advance cancer drug pipeline

Operational highlights

· Research programmes making good progress

· Progress in Chk1 cancer programme presented at NCRI cancer conference

· Company showcase presentation at BIO-Europe, Europe’s largest biotechnology partnering event

Post period end highlights

· Progress in Chk1 cancer programme published in peer-reviewed scientific journal

Dr Tim Mitchell, CEO of Sareum Holdings plc, said: “We have been actively progressing and marketing our cancer research programmes and the recent fundraisings provide us with sufficient cash for the foreseeable future.”

Sareum Holdings plc
Tim Mitchell	01223 497 700
Merchant John East Securities Limited
Simon Clements/Bidhi Bhoma	020 7628 2200
Hybridan LLP
Claire Noyce/Stephen Austin	020 7947 4350

The full report is avaialble as a pdf document: Financial Results for the Six Months Ended 31/12/10

Chairman’s Statement

Sareum continues to progress its in-house cancer drug pipeline, whilst managing the research spend such that we can drive the most promising lines of development to build the asset value of our programmes.

Sareum’s most advanced in-house programme is carried out in conjunction with one of the world’s leading cancer research organisations, The Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technologies Limited. This programme targets checkpoint kinase 1 which is important in controlling a cancer cell’s response to DNA-damaging chemotherapy. Successful in-vivo efficacy studies were presented at the NCRI International Cancer Conference in October 2009 and published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, in January 2010. Furthermore, the fifth patent application arising from the programme was published in January 2010 and the most recent data demonstrates that programme compounds have the potential to be efficacious by oral administration, as well as by injection. This is an important step forward in the search for compounds with the most competitive combination of attributes. We believe that compounds from this programme compare favourably with current best in class therapies, and these latest publications and data will assist in our discussions with potential licensing partners.

The Company’s other cancer programmes, targeting Aurora and FLT4 kinases, are progressing to plan, and continue to be evaluated in in-vivo efficacy models. We look forward to reporting the progress in these programmes over the coming months.

Coupled with this research activity, is a very active marketing campaign to licence these programmes to a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company partner. In November 2009, CEO Dr Tim Mitchell presented Sareum’s cancer drug discovery pipeline at BIO-Europe 2009, Europe’s largest biotechnology partnering event.

The recent share placings, in September and October 2009 provide sufficient cash resources for the foreseeable future whilst maintaining a significant investment in the Company’s pipeline of cancer programmes. We raised substantially more than our internal target and this is allowing us to bring forward some research spend in the programmes showing the most promise. The Directors were pleased to receive this support from investing institutions and retail investors, particularly in the light of the current economic climate.

Financial review

During the six months under review the group raised £815,000, before expenses, from two placings of new ordinary shares on AIM. £315,000 was raised in September at 0.2p per share and the remaining £500,000 was raised in October at 0.25p per share. The funds raised will underwrite the ongoing development of the group’s drug discovery programmes.

We ended the half year with net assets of £797,000, including £740,000 of cash in the bank. The Directors believe that the Company has sufficient cash to fund the business for the foreseeable future. A commercial deal on one or more of the research programmes would further increase the duration of its funds.

Outlook

Our primary objective is to progress our in-house cancer drug discovery pipeline to deliver drug candidates that are positioned to attract lucrative partnering deals with pharmaceutical companies. We will continue to advance these programmes and expect to develop further drug candidates for pre-clinical studies during the current financial year. We are actively seeking licensing partners with the aim of achieving a licensing deal on at least one of our current in-house programmes.

Dr Paul Harper,

Chairman, Sareum Holdings plc

SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC

(“Sareum” or “the Company”)