A UK-based drugmaker focused on cancer drugs Sareum Holdings, on Monday announced cashing a $2.0 million milestone payment as part of the Checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) licence agreement between its co-investment partner, the CRT Pioneer Fund, and Sierra Oncology, formerly known as ProNAi Therapeutics.
The milestone was triggered by taking two Phase 1 trials to Siera Oncology, and further payments up to $319.5 million could be launched if other certain development and regulatory and commercial points should be reached. On the longer run, Sareum said that Sierra would also pay “high single to low double digit” royalties based on the sales of any developed products.
The product in question is SRA737, a highly selective, orally available, small molecule inhibitor of Chk1, for which clinical trials begun in May 2016. The product was licensed to NASDAQ-listed Sierra Oncology in September 2016.
As for the agreements with other partners in the deal, Sareum would get 27.5% of all payments, which amounts to more than half a million U.S. dollars. Sareum will also get the change back from the trial funding of £797,500 from December 2015, estimated at about £200,000.
Under Sareum’s agreements with Cancer Research Technology and the CRT Pioneer Fund, Sareum is entitled to 27.5% of all payments arising from the Chk1 licence agreeement. Therefore, Sareum will receive $550,000 as its financial share of this milestone event.
Dr Tim Mitchell, CEO of Sareum said: “We are delighted that the first milestone event from this agreement has been reached. This is a useful addition to our cash position, following the receipt of £1.5 million as our share of the $7 million up-front payment announced in September.”