Sareum Holdings plc (AIM:SAR), the specialist small molecule drug development business, announces that its CEO, Dr Tim Mitchell, will give a Company presentation at BioTrinity 2020, which will be delivered digitally from 28 April to 1 May 2020.

The presentation will provide an update of Sareum’s two proprietary TYK2/JAK1 kinase inhibitor programmes, SDC-1801 and SDC-1802, targeting autoimmune diseases and cancers, respectively. Dr Mitchell will also highlight the emerging potential of this mechanism to modulate the severe inflammatory responses and respiratory symptoms arising from coronavirus and other viral infections.

Key cytokines that are found elevated in Covid-19 patients that have been admitted to intensive care include IL-2, IL-7, IL-10 and G-CSF*, all of which signal via JAK-family kinases. As the Company noted in its half yearly report, a paper in the European Respiratory Journal published in 2017** suggested that TYK2 inhibition might be effective in the treatment of influenza driven secondary bacterial pneumonia, which is potentially highly relevant against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Company also notes that it is preparing grant applications to fund studies to assess the potential use of its TYK2/JAK1 inhibitors to address this threat to global public health.