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As 2023 comes to an end, we wanted to look back at some of the year’s highlights.

From the launch of our subsidiary company Inaphaea BioLabs, to announcing new additions to the team and key strategic partnerships, it has been a busy and exciting year of growth and development for ValiRx.

Here we take a look at our year in review:

We kicked off 2023 by announcing we had taken out a lease on laboratory and office facilities at MediCity Nottingham as part of our strategy to launch a translational Contract Research Organisation (tCRO™).

The new facilities include 910 sq ft of laboratory space, accommodating up to eight lab-based staff members.

Historically, ValiRx had operated as a virtual biotech company, outsourcing all testing of evaluation and preclinical projects to external contract research organisations (CROs).

The new laboratory infrastructure allows ValiRx to conduct initial testing in-house, with the aim of creating a more efficient and effective translational drug development service for both internal and third-party use.

At the beginning of the year, ValiRx also announced the permanent appointment of Dr Cathy Tralau-Stewart as Chief Scientific Officer.

At ValiRx, Cathy supports the company strategically through membership of the executive team and as a Board observer.

In March, we announced three senior appointments to Inaphaea, including Dr Andrew Carnegie as Head of Strategic Commercial Development, Melissa Barr as Lead Scientist, and Dr Dominic Lowen as Senior Scientist, with Amelia Hatfield joining shortly afterwards, in April.

These appointments were central to the continued growth and development of Inaphaea as we worked to build a first-class scientific and commercial team and become fully operational.

ValiRx announced a collaborative services agreement between Physiomics Plc and Inaphaea in April. Based in Oxford, Physiomics is a leading oncology consultancy that uses mathematical models to support the development of cancer treatment regimens and personalised medicine solutions.

The agreement recognises the synergy between Inaphaea’s ambition to create a tCRO™ and Physiomics’ capabilities across advanced statistical analyses, machine learning techniques, data handling and visualisation, as well as biological modelling.

In June of this year, we announced the acquisition of the scientific assets of Imagen Therapeutics Limited from its appointed liquidators.

The company had collected samples from patients over a number of years across a wide variety of cancers and was able to build a unique ‘biobank’ of human derived cells and provide services to the global pharmaceutical industry for preclinical screening of drug candidates.

The asset acquisition saw Imagen’s biobank and relevant equipment transferred and integrated into Inaphaea over the course of a few months.

In addition, ValiRx secured the consultancy services of co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Imagen, Dr Gareth Griffiths, to assist with the establishment of the patient-derived cell line services in the Inaphaea laboratories.

Also in June, Inaphaea BioLabs entered into an agreement with virtual CRO services company, OncoBone Limited, to allow the use by clients of OncoBone services provided by Inaphaea BioLabs.

OncoBone offers a service to virtual biotech and other biopharma clients whereby OncoBone designs and commissions pre-clinical work on behalf of the client. To conduct the laboratory work, OncoBone engages with a range of pre-clinical CROs to execute the experimental designs that OncoBone has developed. Inaphaea is now confirmed as an OncoBone supplier of cell-based assays.

In the summer, Inaphaea signed a Master Services Agreement and Project Statement of Work with a UK-based biotech company. The defined work programme involved a multi-stage project investigating possible anti-cancer properties of a range of novel molecules using a phenotypic assay and will benefitted from the use of patient-derived cells from Inaphaea’s biobank.

Inaphaea entered into a collaborative services agreement with Agility Life Sciences in August to provide a single point of contact for customers to formulate and test their drug candidates.

The agreement recognises the synergy between Inaphaea’s growing capabilities as a tCRO™ and Agility Life Sciences' expertise in pre-formulation and formulation development, as an award-winning Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO).

Under the agreement, service users of Inaphaea will be able to benefit from Agility’s capabilities in a single service contract with Inaphaea and similarly, service users of Agility will be able to access Inaphaea’s capabilities through its service contract with Agility.

Inaphaea has also teamed up with Inspiralis on enzyme assay services and Ignota Labs on AI toxicity prediction services.

On 26 September, we hosted an official launch event for Inaphaea BioLabs at MediCity Nottingham, supported by BioNow.

Guests enjoyed a tour of our laboratory and an exclusive look at our brand-new set up, which was closely followed by keynote speeches from our team and company showcases from HistologiX's Head of Client Management Dr Peter De'Ath, Inspiralis Ltd's Managing Director Natassja Bush, Venomtech Ltd's Founder & CSO Steve Trim, and Agility Life Sciences' Founder and CEO Professor Claire Thompson.

Once again, we’d like to thank all those who attended Inaphaea’s launch and give special thanks to the keynote speakers, company showcase speakers, and BioNow for helping us make this event a great success.

In November, we entered into an agreement with StingRay Bio Limited to investigate a lead series of drug candidates for use in oncology.

The lead series of molecules has been developed by StingRay using a target-based drug design approach, to create novel candidate drugs for kinases with well-validated links to cancer. Under the agreement, the company will carry out a defined series of preclinical tests on the molecules over the next twelve months to validate the technology and determine suitability for commercialisation.

This preclinical evaluation will investigate the action of the molecules against a range of cancer types. Research conducted at Inaphaea BioLabs and collaborative partners will progress lead optimisation of the lead series molecules and ascertain activity, utilising patient derived cells from the recently acquired Imagen biobank; as well as assessing safety profiles of lead candidates nominated from within the series.

We were delighted to round-off the year by announcing that ValiRx subsidiary, ValiSeek Ltd, had entered into an exclusive option agreement to license VAL401 with Ambrose Healthcare Ltd, a private UK specialist pharmaceutical company.

Ambrose Healthcare is seeking to develop new treatments for rare diseases and patients managed in hospitals and specialist care. VAL401 is the reformulation of the established anti-psychotic drug risperidone and enables an anti-cancer activity.

Under the licensing terms, Ambrose Healthcare commits to completing the development and commercialisation of VAL401 at Ambrose's cost.

We’re thrilled to have agreed on this path to the development of VAL401 and are looking forward to seeing the project develop under Ambrose Healthcare's experienced oversight, combining clinical development and commercial experience.

We are really looking forward to what the next year holds as we continue to expand Inaphaea and progress an innovative portfolio of projects to address the important areas of oncology and the unmet need for treatments in the women’s health space.

To discuss any of our updates, please contact ValiRx CEO Dr Suzy Dilly who will be happy to help.

Wishing you a wonderful festive season and a happy new year!

ValiRx 2023: A year in review