Silence Therapeutics gets German approval for cancer drug trial

(Reuters) - Biotech research and development company Silence Therapeutics said it received approval from German authorities for trials of its pancreatic cancer drug and was reviewing financing options for an aggressive expansion.

Shares in the company rose as much as 20 percent on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

The trials will test Silence's ATU027 compound, which prevents the spread of cancer from one organ to another, in combination with Gemcitabine, an anti-tumor drug.

Silence also said latest studies have shown that its new lipid formulation, DBTC, is effective for RNAi (ribonucleic acid interference) treatments to liver tissues.

The company said it was actively looking at an aggressive expansion of its platform, drug targets and key personnel.

Silence said the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) in Germany had encouraged the company to apply the trials as a combination therapy for a wide range of cancers.

(Reporting By Abhirup Roy and Ankur Banerjee in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)