Krakow, Poland / Berlin, Germany, March 28, 2017 / B3C newswire / -- Selvita S.A. (WSE:SLV), and Berlin-Chemie Menarini, a company of the Menarini Group, announced today that both companies have entered into a global license agreement for SEL24, a dual PIM/FLT3 inhibitor currently in Phase I/II trials in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients.

SEL24 is a Selvita-developed first-in-class orally available dual PIM/FLT3 kinase inhibitor with a unique activity profile. While it is currently investigated for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) AML, preclinical data suggest potential activity in other hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The program entered Phase I/II in early 2017.

"We are excited to sign a license agreement for SEL24 with the Menarini Group" – said Pawel Przewiezlikowski, Chief Executive Officer at Selvita. "This collaboration takes us another step closer to delivering a much-needed new treatment for AML patients. Menarini Group dedication to providing transformative therapies for people courageously facing various life-threatening diseases such as cancer, assures us that the potential of SEL24 in treatment of cancer patients will be fully realized."

According to the agreement, Selvita will grant Menarini Group an exclusive license to further research, develop, manufacture and commercialize SEL24 worldwide. Under the terms of the agreement, Selvita will receive an upfront payment, and will be eligible to receive milestone payments and royalty on future sales.

Dr. Reinhard Uppenkamp, Chairman of Berlin Chemie-Menarini, highlighted the scientific capabilities of Selvita: "We were impressed of the very high-level scientific know-how of Selvita. I am sure that the collaboration between our two companies on SEL24 will be extremely important for cancer patients."

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About Selvita
Selvita S.A. is a drug discovery company, developing breakthrough therapies in the area of oncology. The company’s most advanced R&D program is SEL24, a Phase I dual PIM/FLT3 kinase inhibitor.  Other projects include SEL120, a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of CDK8 in preclinical studies, as well as several drug discovery platforms in immunooncology, immunometabolism and cancer metabolism as well as epigenetics performed independently or in collaboration with global pharma and biotech companies.

Selvita also offers a wide range of integrated drug discovery services, helping biotech and pharma partners discover and develop new drugs. The scope of services offer includes high quality services starting from chemistry (computational, medicinal, process chemistry, custom synthesis), through protein biochemistry up to complex in vitro preclinical studies as well as analytics with GMP and GLP certification.

The company has alliances and partnerships with more than fifty large and medium-sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from USA and Europe, including R&D partnerships with Merck, H3 Biomedicine, and Nodthera Therapeutics/Epidarex Capital.

The company was established in 2007 and currently employs over 380 scientists, among which 30% are PhDs. Selvita is headquartered in Krakow, Poland, with international offices located in Cambridge, MA and San Francisco Bay Area, in the US, as well as in Cambridge, UK.

Selvita is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE:SLV).

About the Menarini Group
Berlin-Chemie Menarini  is a company of The Menarini Group, an Italian pharmaceutical company, 19th in Europe out of 5,541 companies, and 39th company in the world out of 21,317 companies, with a turnover of more than 3.4 billion Euro and more than 16,600 employees. The Menarini Group has always pursued two strategic objectives: Research and Internationalisation and is present in the most important therapeutic areas with products for cardiology, gastroenterology, pneumology, infectious diseases, diabetology, inflammation, and analgesia. Menarini is also committed to oncology, with three new investigational drugs, including two monoclonal antibodies and one small chemical entity, in development for the treatment of a variety of tumors.