Rakovina Therapeutics Expands AI Research Collaborations

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 08, 2024 – Rakovina Therapeutics Inc. (TSX-V: RKV), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new cancer therapies using advanced DNA-damage response technologies, has announced the extension of two significant research partnerships. This expansion aligns with the company's recent collaboration with the Deep Docking AI Drug Discovery Platform.

On March 27, 2024, Rakovina Therapeutics secured exclusive access to the Deep Docking AI platform, which focuses on DNA-damage response targets. This innovative platform enables the company to analyze billions of molecular structures to determine their viability as targeted cancer treatments.

“These collaborations empower us to leverage the Deep Docking AI platform while ensuring the highest standards of research,” stated Jeffrey Bacha, Executive Chairman of Rakovina Therapeutics. “The most promising candidates will be validated through our existing R&D infrastructure and progressed to human clinical trials and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.”

To aid these efforts, Rakovina Therapeutics has enhanced its collaboration with Pharma Inventor Inc., a British Columbia-based company that offers chemistry R&D and analytical services to pharmaceutical and biotech industries, as well as research institutes and academic groups across North America. Pharma Inventor will provide medicinal chemistry support to rapidly synthesize novel lead drug candidates identified by the Deep Docking AI platform for further validation. Rakovina Therapeutics will retain all rights to the new molecules developed through this partnership.

Furthermore, Rakovina Therapeutics has expanded its collaborative research agreement with the University of British Columbia (UBC). The company's lead optimization research infrastructure at UBC’s Vancouver Prostate Center will facilitate the rapid validation of novel drug candidates discovered via the Deep Docking AI platform.

Dr. Mads Daugaard, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Rakovina Therapeutics, highlighted the importance of these partnerships. “We are intensifying these critical research collaborations to support our recent partnership with the Deep Docking AI platform. This expansion positions us to fully exploit this collaboration's potential,” he explained.

Dr. Daugaard elaborated that over the next 12 to 16 weeks, the company plans to screen six to eight billion compounds against its initial DNA-damage response target. From this screening, a shortlist of the most promising new drug candidates will be synthesized for validation through their in-house laboratory infrastructure. Dr. Daugaard, who also serves as a professor at UBC, emphasized the goal to advance promising candidates toward clinical trials through partnerships with pharmaceutical developers. "Given recent pre-clinical licensing deals in the DNA-damage response field, we are confident in our ability to create substantial shareholder value shortly," added Bacha.

Rakovina Therapeutics Inc. is focused on developing new cancer treatments based on innovative DNA-damage response technologies. The company has established a lineup of novel DNA-damage response inhibitors and aims to progress one or more drug candidates into human clinical trials, seeking regulatory approval from agencies like Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Pharma Inventor Inc., a Canadian chemistry R&D and analytical services company founded in 2013, provides inventive medicinal chemistry solutions relevant to AI-based drug discovery. The company supports the pharmaceutical, biotech, research institutes, and academic research communities with advanced chemistry solutions.

The Vancouver Prostate Center at the University of British Columbia is renowned as one of the world’s leading cancer facilities. It is designated as a National Centre of Excellence and Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, offering extensive research capabilities from molecular biology to human clinical trials.