Investment
Pharminox, a private UK oncology R&D company spun out from Oxford University and based in Nottingham, has raised £2 million from new and existing investors to expand its portfolio of small molecule cancer therapeutics. In addition, Alan Miller has been appointed to the Pharminox board as non-executive director.
Pharminox develops small molecule cancer drugs using a chemistry-driven approach. Since the appointment of former director of the Cancer Research UK Experimental Cancer Chemotherapy Group, Malcolm Stevens, as Chief Scientific Officer in 2004, it has acquired the rights to novel programmes from Cancer Research UK–funded laboratories. Pharminox’ portfolio products include the DNA-damaging agent Phortress, currently in Phase I clinical trials, and telomere-targeting RHPS4.
Peter Worrall, of Pharminox, said: “The new funds will be used primarily to advance the lead candidates from our telomere targeting and redox homeostasis modulator programmes into full preclinical development, and I am very grateful to our shareholders for their continued support. I am also delighted to welcome Alan Miller to the Board. Alan brings a wealth of investment and financial experience, which will be invaluable as the company moves to the next stage in its development.”
The Schering-Plough Research Institute collaborates with Pharminox in the discovery of DNA-interactive agents, and has an option to license worldwide development as well as commercialisation rights to compounds that arise from the collaboration in return for milestone payments and royalties.
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