Artios Pharma, a leading DNA Damage Response company developing innovative new treatments for cancer, has exercised its option to in-license the first nuclease drug development program under its research collaboration and option agreement with Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. The collaboration was formed in June 2017 to discover and develop novel cancer treatments by targeting DNA nucleases involved in the DDR.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Niall Martin, chief executive officer at Artios Pharma, said, “We are delighted to announce the in-licensing of our first nuclease programme from Masaryk University. This reflects the strong progress that has been made under our research and development collaboration with Drs Krejci and Paruch at Masaryk University on DDR nucleases. The in-licensed programme has the potential to become a novel, first-in-class DDR targeted treatment for cancer, which complements our current development pipeline and further supports our position as a leader in the DDR field.” 

Dr Lumir Krejci, the principal investigator on DDR nucleases at Masaryk University, said, “We are extremely pleased that Artios has chosen to in-license the lead nuclease research programme under our strategic collaboration, and I am very proud of our team here at Masaryk University. We believe nucleases have the potential to provide a new wave of innovative DDR-based cancer therapies and are confident in Artios’ ability to translate this programme to the clinic, to benefit the lives of cancer patients.”