Cyclacel Announces Strategic Alliance with the Institute of Cancer Research

DUNDEE - 13 September 1999 - Cyclacel Limited, the UK-based cancer therapeutics company, today announced a strategic alliance with the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in Sutton, Surrey part of the Cancer Research Campaign's Centre for Cancer Therapeutics.

The objectives of the alliance are to study the behaviour of drug candidates from Cyclacel's CYC200 and CYC300 programmes in animal models and evaluate their pharmacological characteristics, such as pharmacokinetics and metabolism. In CYC200 Cyclacel is developing small molecule inhibitors of the enzyme Cyclin-Dependent Kinase (CDK), an important target of the human body's own cancer control mechanism. In CYC300 existing anticancer drugs have been combined with Cyclacel's Penetratin® technology, which has the potential of transporting drugs to the nucleus of cells, with the goal of improving their efficacy and tolerability. In a further aspect of the alliance the ICR will use information derived with Cyclacel to synthesise an entirely new family of CDK inhibitor drugs based on a novel chemical structure. Cyclacel will have exclusive rights to these new compounds.

The alliance agreement builds on the existing Cyclacel-ICR research relationship which has produced important insights into the potential of CDK inhibitors. Results from this work were recently reported in a presentation at the 1999 conference of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). The lead author from the ICR was honoured by the conference organisers with a Young Investigator's Award.

Prof. David Lane, Chief Scientific Officer of Cyclacel said: "When Cyclacel was founded, part of the know-how contributed by CRC Technology was related to cancer targets interacting with CDKs. We then established at Cyclacel a small molecule approach to these targets resulting in the identification of several lead compounds. The ICR alliance will help accelerate the lead optimisation process with the goal of selecting a clinical candidate. The ICR group has an impressive record of successful development of several anticancer drugs over the years and is expected to make an important contribution to the growth of Cyclacel."

Prof. Paul Workman, Director of the CRC Centre for Cancer Therapeutics and Harrap Professor of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, ICR said: "We are pleased to collaborate with Cyclacel in the further development of these important therapeutic programmes. In particular the area of CDK inhibition, in which Cyclacel is a leading player, is an important new "mechanism-based" approach to cancer drug discovery. Our group at the ICR is dedicating a large amount of effort to realise the promise of such approaches. The addition of three members of staff funded by the Cyclacel alliance will support this objective."