Alchemia wins US patent for drug discovery platform

Alchemia (ASX:ACL) has picked up a new US patent for its VAST small molecule drug discovery platform.

The US patent office has also granted a patent term adjustment (PTA), extending its expiry date from October 2025 to February 2028.

Alchemia’s VAST (Versatile Assembly on Stable Templates) platform contains an array of around 14,000 compounds that can be used to help identify new small molecule drugs.

“The granting of this US patent and PTA is a significant addition to the protection of the VAST platform,” Alchemia VP of intellectual property Dr Mike West said. “This additional patent term provides meaningful protection to our VAST platform.”

Alchemia last week entered a drug discovery collaboration with AstraZeneca to use its VAST platform to identify potential small molecule treatments for diseases in areas including oncology, respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolism, infection and neuroscience.

For Alchemia, the deal could be worth up to $240 million in milestone payments. The company will also be entitled to royalties on any sales.

Also in April, the company wrapped up a $12.95 million capital raising round, chiefly to help fund its ongoing phase III trial of modified chemotherapy drug candidate HA-Irinotecan in colorectal cancer.

Alchemia shares were trading 3.9% higher at $0.4 as of around 12 pm on Wednesday.