D and O Agreement with AstraZeneca

It’s now almost 5 years since a Development and Option Agreement was signed with AstraZeneca and we’ve heard nothing but crickets chirping since. This IMO is another stain on Starpharma.

A Half Year Report yesterday was another opportunity to give a desperately needed update yet all shareholders got was a slap in the face with silence. Without evidence to the contrary one can only assume that the pre-clinical studies did not set the world on fire, no party wants to develop it further and the agreement has been conveniently put in the ‘on foot’ file even though nothing is happening.

For those new to Starpharma, this agreement is/was about SPL doing preclinical work on a DEP enhanced version of an existing AstraZeneca major marketed oncology medicine. Following completion of pre-clinical studies and for a ‘defined period’ (undisclosed to the market), AstraZeneca had the option to licence the drug candidate by paying US$5m to SPL. If AZ chose not to licence it and bring it into the clinic, Starpharma had the option to licence the rights to develop and commercialise the drug candidate themselves, or sub-licence to a 3rd party.

This was a price sensitive announcement back on 3rd June 2019. Have we heard anything at all since then? Starpharma shareholders deserve an honest update about the status of this program. Five years is an excessively long time for pre-clinical work of a DEP enhanced version of an existing commercial drug. Even a major shareholder on this forum was expecting this process to only take around 12 months. This IMO appears to be another stink-fail by Starpharma.

Did this price-sensitive announcement trigger a KPI for any executives back in 2019? This appears to be another magic fairy dust announcement that gets shareholders excited, but then has no follow through and no update.

S H A M E

https://www.starpharma.com/assets/asxannouncements/190603%20Starpharma%20signs%20second%20oncology%20agreement%20with%20AZ%20final.pdf