(Alliance News) - Cizzle Biotechnology Holdings PLC on Friday said that it has postponed a meeting to approve the sale of shares in one of its assets, and so the option has been extended to October.

In August, the London-based diagnostics developer announced a put option to sell its 5% economic interest and royalty sharing agreement in the AZD1656 asset to Conduit Pharmaceuticals for GBP3.3 million, to be satisfied through the issuance of new shares in Conduit and its prospective parent Murphy Canyon Acquisition Corp.

Conduit is an autoimmune-disease focused clinical-stage specialty biopharmaceutical company.

Covid therapy AZD1656 was originally developed by AstraZeneca PLC. In August 2019, clinical trials-focused charity St George Street Capital Ltd acquired the right to develop and commercialise two assets from a major global pharmaceutical company, one of which includes the licence to a drug that could be beneficial to diabetic patients suffering with Covid-19.

A meeting was planned by Murphy for September 7 to provide their approval for the transaction. The meeting has now been postponed, and will be held on September 20. As a consequence, the option has been extended until October 25.

Should Cizzle exercise the option and the Conduit-Murphy Transaction complete, the company will hold shares in the Conduit-Murphy merged business, thereafter to be called Conduit, which will become a publicly traded company on NASDAQ in the US.

Cizzle Biotechnology shares were trading 2.1% lower at 1.91 pence each in London on Friday afternoon.

By Holly Beveridge, Alliance News reporter

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