ValiRx PLC on Friday said it has signed a deal with StingRay Bio Ltd to investigate a series of drug candidates.

The life science company is based near Birmingham, England and is focused on early-stage cancer therapeutics and women’s health. StingRay Bio is a Cambridge-based biotech company.

The firm said it will carry out preclinical tests on StingRay’s molecules against a variety of cancers over the next 12 months in order to establish their suitability for commercial development.

It noted that the series of drugs have been developed by StingRay using its target-based drug approach.

The company said the cost of the evaluation will be paid by ValiRx, and will be a maximum of £100,000. Following the evaluation, ValiRx will have the option to license the technology of pre-agreed terms, it said.

The evaluation will also assess the safety profiles of the drug candidates. It will be conducted by ValiRx’s 100%-owned subsidiary Inaphea BioLabs.

ValiRx Chief Executive Suzy Dilly said: ‘It is hugely exciting to have another evaluation agreement commencing, particularly one such as this which has a high pedigree of medicinal chemistry behind it to build the lead series of molecules for us to continue its optimisation. I’m looking forward to working closely with the team at StingRay to continue the project.’

Meanwhile, StingRay CEO Jeff Roix commented: ‘We look forward to further progress in our evaluation agreement with ValiRx. With great innovation provided by its Inaphaea team and novel Imagen assets, we believe ValiRx’s efforts can help realise the commercial potential of StingRay’s founding contributions in new cancer therapeutics.’

ValiRx shares rose 1.2% to 12.14 pence each on Friday morning in London.

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.