Shares of Achieve Life Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ACHV) are on a tear.
The clinical-stage pharmaceutical company announced an amendment to its Technology Licence Agreement with the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Achieve has been granted exclusive rights for all human medicinal uses of cytisine derivatives created under the License Agreement across all therapeutic categories. Under the amended collaboration agreement, studies will be conducted to generate and evaluate semi-synthetic cytisine derivatives for potential use in multiple indications across addiction and neurological disorders.
News of the partnership expansion sent shares of Achieve up 51% in mid-day trading Wednesday.
Achieve CEO Rick Stewart commented, “Our immediate focus is to execute the cytisine smoking cessation development plan in U.S. but we must also be forward-thinking about our product lifecycle and pipeline […] Partnerships with key academic institutions, such as the University of Bristol, allow us to explore additional ways in which we can improve cytisine and evaluate its role in the treatment of other addictions and neurodegenerative diseases.”
Professor Tim Gallagher, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Bristol added, “Through our research, we will create novel cytisine derivatives and identify additional therapeutic applications for cytisine, which have been shown to target key cellular receptors implicated in a number of serious disorders. Our research is well under way and we expect to publish initial data in the near future.”
Achieve entered into a strategic collaboration in June 2017 with the University of Bristol to license certain patent and technology rights to explore next-generation cytisine-based therapies specifically related to smoking cessation.
Cytisine is a plant-based alkaloid with a high binding affinity to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. It is an established smoking cessation treatment that has been approved and marketed in Central and Eastern Europe for more than 20 years.