Major Drug Collaboration

Sareum Holdings PLC
25 July 2005


For immediate release                                              25 July 2005

   SAREUM HOLDINGS PLC, THE INSTITUTE OF CANCER RESEARCH AND CANCER RESEARCH
                                 TECHNOLOGY LTD


                   Major Cancer Drug Discovery Collaboration

Sareum Holdings plc (Sareum) (AIM: SAR), the specialist structure-based drug
discovery and services business, The Institute of Cancer Research (The
Institute), Europe's leading cancer research centre, and Cancer Research
Technology Limited (CRT), the oncology focused development and commercialisation
company, are pleased to announce that they have entered into a joint
collaboration to develop novel cancer therapeutics.

The collaboration will establish a joint research team to target a biochemical
pathway, responsible for resistance to the effectiveness of traditional cancer
therapeutics, found in more than half of solid tumour types. The team will work
towards developing cancer treatments with valuable benefits for cancer patients
including lower doses of existing therapies, fewer adverse side-effects and
efficacy where tumours currently do not respond to chemotherapy.

Sareum will use its expertise in high-throughput protein expression, structure
determination computational and medicinal chemistry to identify novel compounds
using its innovative Template Screening technology. Combining Sareum's
experience with the vast expertise in drug development at The Cancer Research UK
Centre for Cancer Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research, this joint
collaboration plans to rapidly develop such compounds into more effective cancer
therapies.

Under the terms of the agreement, drug candidates developed by the collaboration
are intended to be licensed by CRT to pharmaceutical partners for clinical
trials. Payments, milestones and royalties arising from any partnering deals
will be shared between Sareum, The Institute and CRT.

Commenting on the agreement, Sareum's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell,
said: "I am delighted that we have entered into this major collaboration with
such prestigious partners in the field of cancer.  The collaboration with The
Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technology has huge potential
in the field of cancer drug discovery and I look forward to taking novel cancer
therapies developed in this collaboration to the clinic."

Professor Paul Workman, Director of The Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer
Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "These are very exciting
times in cancer drug development. This collaboration will bring together many
years of expertise and experience in targeting cancer, which we hope will
ultimately allow us to use existing drugs more effectively and hence improve
cancer management."

Dr Keith Blundy, COO of Cancer Research Technology Limited said: "This
partnership further exemplifies CRT's role in bringing benefit to cancer
patients by forming partnerships between cancer researchers and industry to
accelerate the development of new therapies. Sareum's technologies and the
expertise of ICR will add significantly to the rate of progress of the
programme."



For further information:


Sareum Holdings                                               01223 497700

Tim Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer

The Institute of Cancer Research                              020 7153 5359
Nadia Ramsey, Science Press Officer

Cancer Research UK                                            020 7242 0200
Sophy Gould, Senior Press Officer

Cancer Research Technology Limited                            0207 679 3640
Nick Wells, Marketing and Business Manager

Buchanan Communications                                       020 7466 5000
Mark Court, Mary-Jane Johnson



Notes for editors:

About Sareum Holdings plc

Sareum Holdings plc is a specialist structure based drug discovery business
headquartered in Cambridge, UK. The Company was formed in August 2003 to
discover new drugs for the treatment of cancer and to provide a range of drug
discovery services to the pharmaceutical industry. Sareum's unique approach aims
to halve the time it takes to discover new drug candidates.



Structure-based drug discovery involves the determination of a disease causing
protein's three-dimensional structure. Once the structure is known, novel
chemical entities are designed to 'lock-in' to the protein with the aim of
reversing or arresting a disease's progression.

Sareum's approach to structure based drug discovery is to produce multiple
recombinant proteins primarily through a baculovirus expression system;
determine their structure using x-ray crystallography; and then use the
Company's template-molecule x-ray screening technology to identify new chemical
entities that interact with the target protein. Sareum then uses its
high-throughput medicinal chemistry platform to rapidly synthesise further
molecules and develop the most promising into potential drug candidates.

Sareum offers its accelerated drug discovery capabilities on a fee basis to the
pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Sareum intends to license out its
internally generated drug candidates at the Phase I or Phase II clinical trials
stage.



Sareum joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 and
trades under the symbol SAR.  For further information, please visit
www.sareum.co.uk



About The Institute of Cancer Research

The Institute of Cancer Research is Europe's leading cancer research centre with
expert scientists working on cutting edge research.  It was founded in 1909 to
carry out research into the causes of cancer and to develop new strategies for
its prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. For more information please visit
www.icr.ac.uk



The Institute works in a unique partnership with the Royal Marsden NHS
Foundation Trust, forming the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe. The
Institute is unrivalled in its record in cancer drug discovery and development.



The Institute is a charity that relies on voluntary income. The Institute is a
highly cost-effective major cancer research organisation with over 90p in every
£ directly supporting research.



About Cancer Research Technology Limited

Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) is a specialist technology transfer and
development company which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for
the benefit of cancer patients. CRT is wholly owned by Cancer Research UK, the
largest independent funder of cancer research in the world. CRT works closely
with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect
intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with
commercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of
new cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies.
Further information about CRT can be found at www.cancertechnology.com.

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading charity dedicated to research on the
causes, treatment and prevention of cancer. The charity supports the work of
3,000 scientists, doctors and nurses in over 80 academic centres across the UK,
with an annual scientific spend of more than £213 million. Further information
about Cancer Research UK can be found at www.cancerresearchuk.org.




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            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange