Evgen Pharma plc (AIM: EVG), a clinical stage drug development company focused on the treatment of cancer and neurological conditions, has acquired exclusive worldwide licensing rights to a wide range of novel compounds from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Seville, Spain.
This in-licensing agreement further bolsters the intellectual property position of the Company with rights to more than 60 new chemical entities based on the core structure of sulforaphane, the active ingredient in the Company’s lead product SFX-01. Evgen Pharma will use its Sulforadex(R) platform to synthesise and stabilise the newly acquired compounds with a view to taking the most promising into clinical development.
Under the terms of the worldwide licensing agreement, Evgen Pharma will pay a modest upfront payment and one-off milestone payments as the first compound progresses through clinical development. Royalties on future sales of any marketed products will not exceed 1% of net sales.
Patent protection for the newly in-licensed compounds is pending in Europe, United States, China, Japan, Australia, Canada and is granted in their national home territory of Spain.
The new compounds will complement Evgen Pharma’s SFX-01, a synthetic and stabilised version of sulforaphane, a naturally occurring molecule with established anti-cancer and neuroprotectant properties. Early next year, SFX-01 is expected to enter Phase II trials in subarachnoid haemorrhage and, a few months later, in metastatic breast cancer.
Dr Stephen Franklin, Evgen Pharma’s CEO, commented: “We are delighted to acquire the exclusive worldwide licensing rights to these novel compounds. The University of Seville has conducted an innovative medicinal chemistry programme based on sulforaphane and, like sulforaphane, these novel compounds have a requirement for our patented stabilisation technology. These new compounds give us the opportunity to lead the intellectual property space around sulforaphane and to build a drug development pipeline targeting several therapeutic markets within neurology and oncology.”
