Alchemia gets $8.8m R&D tax rebate for FY13

Alchemia (ASX:ACL) has received an additional $8.8 million rebate as part of the R&D Tax Incentive Scheme.

The new rebate for FY13 brings the total funds Alchemia has received under the R&D incentive scheme over the last 12 months to over $13 million.

In December, Alchemia won approval from AusIndustry to apply for incentive credits for non-Australian R&D conducted by business unit Alchemia Oncology. Alchemia subsequently received $3.4 million through the unit as part of a $4.4 million credit for its R&D expenditure in FY12.

In a filing, the company said its FY13 rebate includes claims from both overseas and domestic R&D, and added that it expects the overseas research finding to apply to the current financial year as well.

The filing also provided an update to Alchemia’s phase II trial of cancer treatment candidate HA-Irinotecan in small cell lung cancer.

The trial, which commenced in September 2011, aims to assess the safety and efficacy of the drug when used in combination with popular chemotherapy carboplatin.

To date, 26 of the planned 40 patients have been recruited. Trial investigators have reported that early results suggest HA-Irinotecan can be administered safely with carboplatin and there are encouraging early signs of clinical activity.

Early results from the trial were presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Sydney yesterday.

Alchemia is also currently conducting a phase III trial of HA-Irinotecan in metastatic colorectal cancer. In March, this trial hit its recruitment target of 76 patients.

Alchemia (ASX:ACL) shares were trading unchanged at $0.60 as of around 1 pm on Wednesday.