Prescient completes acquisition of AKTivate Therapeutics

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THE ROADHOUSE PHARMACY: Prescient Therapeutics (ASX: VHL) has finalised the acquisition of specialty oncology company AKTivate Therapeutics and its novel cancer drug candidate triciribine phosphatemonohydrate (TCN-P).

Prescient has paid US$300,000 cash consideration and issued 6.7 million shares to the vendors.

The company will issue a further 5 million Prescient shares to the vendors contingent on the meeting of major clinical and regulatory milestones.

Prescient Therapeutics chairman Steven Engle said completion of the AKTivate was another important milestone for the company.

“The completion of the AKTivate transaction is Prescient’s second major oncology acquisition this year, and significantly strengthens the company’s product pipeline,” Engle said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“We now have two novel cancer compounds with the prospect of five mid-stage clinical trials.

“The acquisition is highly complementary for Prescient – not only do the two compounds share scientific pedigrees and clinical investigators in the US, but there is also the potential for these two compounds to be used synergistically with one another to block key cancer growth pathways.

“Importantly for Prescient shareholders, this transformational acquisition does not come with near-term onerous costs typical of such clinical programs.

“Both the breast and ovarian cancer trials are currently funded by US government grants, which is a further endorsement of these programs.”

TCN-P is a small molecule that blocks the AKT growth-promoting pathway that leads to cancer.

AKT is the most frequently altered signalling pathway in cancer and thus plays a key role in the development of many cancers including those being currently pursued by the company (breast, ovarian and leukaemia).

High AKT expression is associated with a poor prognosis, resistance to chemotherapy and shortened patient survival time.

In animal studies, TCN-P has been shown to strongly suppress the growth of high AKT-expressing tumours and to overcome resistance to commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs, a key feature of the TCN-P drug.