VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rakovina Therapeutics Inc. (TSX-V: RKV) a biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing new cancer therapies based on novel DNA-damage response (DDR) technologies announced today that it has received initial results from the proprietary Deep Docking AI platform.

Rakovina employed the Deep Docking algorithm to evaluate billions of molecular structures to develop a short-list of drug candidates that have been optimized to a specific target-product-profile. A screening effort of this magnitude would not be possible with traditional medicinal chemistry approaches.

“With the Deep Docking AI platform, these initial results were achieved in less than five months versus traditional methods of discovery which would take thousands of years,” said Rakovina Therapeutics Executive Chairman Jeffrey Bacha. “AI dramatically increases speed and the likelihood of success of our drug discovery platform,” he added.

“We are pleased to receive this short-list of recommended drug candidates from our initial AI screening effort,” said Bacha. “Our excitement is similar to receiving a core sample from a promising mining project, but instead of rare metals, this sample contains a curated list of potential novel best-in-class drug candidates that could provide significant improvements in the treatment of cancer for patients worldwide.”

Selected drug candidates will be synthesized for validation in Rakovina Therapeutics’ laboratories at the University of British Columbia during the coming months with the goal of advancing a best-in-class DDR drug candidate to human clinical trials in collaboration with pharmaceutical company partners.

In March 2024, the Company announced that it was entering into a collaboration agreement with Dr. Artem Cherkasov, granting Rakovina Therapeutics exclusive access to the Deep Docking AI Platform for DNA-damage response targets. Dr. Cherkasov is a professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a senior scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre. These results are the initial output of the ongoing collaboration.

The goal of the collaboration is to leverage AI algorithms to analyze billions of potential drug candidates, with the goal of accelerating discoveries, reducing costs, and improving the success rate in identifying best-in-class drug candidates in the DNA-damage response field. The agreement provides Rakovina with ownership rights to all novel drug candidates generated through the collaboration.

Rakovina Therapeutics will present the initial results of this research in a poster presentation at the Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting, which is being held November 21 through 24, 2024, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

Additionally, in Sept. 2024, the Company announced an agreement with Variational AI of Vancouver to leverage the capabilities of the Enki™ AI platform which has been trained to identify novel inhibitors of specific kinase targets in the DDR field. Rakovina Therapeutics expects initial results from this research in the next several months.

About Rakovina Therapeutics Inc.

Rakovina Therapeutics Inc. is focused on the development of new cancer treatments based on novel DNA-damage response technologies. The Company has established a pipeline of novel DNA-damage response inhibitors with the goal of advancing one or more drug candidates into human clinical trials and obtaining marketing approval for new cancer therapeutics from Health Canada, the United States Food and Drug Administration, and similar international regulatory agencies. Further information may be found at www.rakovinatherapeutics.com

The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the content of this press release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notice Regarding Rakovina Therapeutics Forward-Looking Statements:

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding the Company and its respective business, which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the proposed business plan of the Company and other statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “is expected”, “expects”, “scheduled”, “intends”, “contemplates”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “proposes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events, or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements are based on the current expectations of the management of the Company. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur by certain specified dates or at all and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting the Company, including risks regarding the medical device industry, economic factors, regulatory factors, the equity markets generally and risks associated with growth and competition.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events, or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events, or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The reader is referred to the Company’s most recent filings on SEDAR for a more complete discussion of all applicable risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through the Company’s profile page at www.sedar.com.

For Further Information Contact:

Jeffrey Bacha, BSC, MBA
Executive Chairman and Director
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Investor Relations and Media:
Ira M. Gostin
Investor Relations
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775-391-0213