OREANDA-NEWS. Sareum, the specialist cancer drug discovery and development business, is pleased to announce that the Japan and Singapore Patent Offices have issued notifications that patents will be granted for inventions associated with Sareum's Aurora+FLT3 kinase inhibitor programme.

These patents describe compounds that inhibit the activity of Aurora and FLT3 kinase enzymes and the medical use of these compounds, particularly in the treatment of cancer. The granting of this patent in Japan means that Sareum will now have approved patent protection in all major territories for its Aurora+FLT3 kinase inhibitor programme. The Company announced that similar patents were to be granted in the USA and Europe in September 2015 and in China in August 2016.

Sareum's Aurora+FLT3 kinase inhibitor programme targets acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and other leukaemias and lymphomas. In disease models of AML, the preclinical development candidate molecule demonstrates greater than 98% tumour inhibition. Preclinical development studies to obtain approval for human clinical trials are being undertaken in collaboration with, and funded by, Hebei Medical University Biomedical Engineering Center (HMUBEC) in China.

Sareum's CSO, Dr John Reader, commented: "These notifications of patent grants in Japan and Singapore complete the protection of the intellectual property associated with Sareum's Aurora+FLT3 programme in all the major territories, enhancing our negotiating position with potential licence partners".

Sareum is a drug discovery and development company delivering targeted small molecule therapeutics, focusing on cancer and autoimmune disease, for licensing to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies at the preclinical or early clinical trials stage.

Sareum operates an outsourced research model, working with international collaborators and a world-wide network of research providers. Its most advanced programme (Chk1) commenced clinical trials in May 2016 and was licensed to NASDAQ-listed ProNAi Therapeutics in September 2016.