LONDON, UK: ValiRx plc, a company developing early-stage cancer therapeutics and women’s health products, has signed a five-year agreement with the University of Dundee and its Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) to access their research on new potential drugs.

The first project under the agreement will focus on pro-senescence, a novel approach that aims to make cancer cells age faster and stop growing. This could be effective for various cancers and other diseases related to aging. The project is based on previous research by Dundee and Prof Cleo Bishop from Queen Mary University London.

The project will take about a year to evaluate the anti-cancer activity and mechanism of action of a lead series of compounds in the Inaphaea BioLabs facility, with the help of external collaborators. If successful, ValiRx will have the option to license the compounds on pre-agreed terms.

Dr Suzy Dilly, CEO of ValiRx commented: “We are delighted to be able to streamline the process of reviewing and accessing the excellent research from University of Dundee’s DDU, which will help to bring on evaluation projects more quickly.  The strength of the DDU and research facilities at Dundee are very impressive and, having reviewed multiple projects from teams there over the past year, we believe that this evaluation agreement will be the first of a series of new projects that can be brought into our pipeline.”

Dr Cathy Tralau-Stewart, CSO of ValiRx explains: “The Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) is housed within the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee and is a fully integrated drug discovery centre which utilises extensive, highly-respected industry expertise to support the development of therapeutics originating from academic research. This multi-disciplinary expertise is required for successful drug discovery and we look forward to working with the DDU to progress this exciting project and other innovative approaches. This evaluation agreement is an important step-forward in developing ValiRx’s drug discovery pipeline.”

Professor David Gray, Head of Biology and innovative targets portfolio lead at the DDU commented “We are delighted that our UKRI Impact Accelerator Award has enabled us to translate the groundbreaking work of our collaborator Cleo Bishop at Queen Mary University London, to the point where ValiRx see the potential for treating patients.”