ValiRx plc

("ValiRx" or the "Company")

Inaphaea Co-Marketing Agreement

London, UK - ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), a life science company focusing on early-stage cancer therapeutics and women's health, provides the following update from its wholly owned subsidiary Inaphaea BioLabs Limited ("Inaphaea").

Inaphaea is pleased to confirm the execution of a co-marketing agreement (the "Agreement") with US contract research organisation Netoids Rx Laboratories LLC, doing business as Spanios LLC ("Spanios"), to provide Inaphaea's high throughput drug screening services using its Patient Derived Cells ("PDC") as a precursor to Spanios's proprietary Patient Derived Tumoroids ("PDT").

Inaphaea and Spanios will be entitled to a percentage of service royalties on relevant contract introduced by the respective party. Both companies have also agreed to co-market their respective services. The Agreement is for a period of 12 months initially and may be extended in writing by mutual agreement.

Andrew Carnegie, Head of Strategic Commercial Development at Inaphaea, commented "This deal with Spanios is the first co-marketing arrrangment for Inaphaea in the US and demonstrates the synergy of our Patient Derived Cell approach for rapid and economic screening of larger numbers of drug candidates before transferring lead candidates into Spanios's lower throughput but higher complexity, ex-vivo models."

Mark Eccleston, CEO of ValiRx commented "We are excited to be working with a highly innovative partner like Spanios. Bringing therapies to market faster requires better models for screening drugs to deliver more accurate and translatable results. Inaphaea has focussed on the early stage of this process where, typically, larger numbers of candidates need to be refined for screening in disease relevant models. We can then pass on the best candidates to Spanios for testing in their organoid platform."

Bhuvanesh Dave, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of Spanios, commented "The partnership with Inaphaea is a perfect fit for our joint goal of accelerating drug development to bring therapies to patients faster. Combining Inaphaea's higher throughput approach to candidate selection with our versatile three-dimensional PDT drug testing platform, COMPASS (Custom Organoid Modelling Platform for Accurate & Speedy Solutions) which is capable of recapitulating tumor microenvironment (TME) including features of oxygenation and immunocompetence, we can combine the best of both approaches for advancing discovery and development pipeline."

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR"). The Directors of the Company take responsibility for this announcement.

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Notes for Editors

About ValiRx

ValiRx is a life science company focused on early-stage cancer therapeutics and women's health, accelerating the translation of innovative science into impactful medicines to improve patient lives.

ValiRx provides the scientific, financial, and commercial framework for enabling rapid translation of innovative science into clinical development.

Using its extensive and proven experience in research and drug development, the team at ValiRx selects and incubates promising novel drug candidates and guides them through an optimised process of development, from pre-clinical studies to clinic and investor-ready assets.

ValiRx connects diverse disciplines across scientific, technical, and commercial domains, with the aim of achieving a more streamlined, less costly, drug development process. The team works closely with carefully selected collaborators and leverages the combined expertise required for science to advance.

Lead candidates from ValiRx's portfolio are outlicensed or partnered with investors through ValiRx subsidiary companies for further clinical development and commercialisation. 

ValiRx listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2006 and trades under the ticker symbol: VAL.

For further information, visit: www.valirx.com

Cautionary statement

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from any expected future events or results expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Persons receiving this announcement should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable law, regulation or accounting standard, the Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.