Conduit Pharma In Joint Development Deal With Manoira To Enter Into Animal Health Market

(RTTNews) - Conduit Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CDT), a disease-agnostic life science company, Wednesday said it has entered into a joint development agreement with Manoira Corporation, a specialty animal health firm, to develop Conduit's drug candidates AZD1656 and AZD5658 in animal health indications.

As per the deal, Manoira will get an upfront consideration of $500,000 in stock by issuing 154,799 shares based on the closing Conduit share price of $3.23 on June 3, 2025.

Under the partnership, Manoira will initially evaluate AZD1656 in animal osteoarthritis. Additionally, Manoira plans to evaluate a novel combination of its patented CBDA co-crystal with glucokinase activators AZD1656 and AZD5658 for the treatment of osteoarthritis in animals.

Manoira has agreed to fund all the development activities of the partnership, while Conduit will retain all existing intellectual property (IP) rights, and will keep exclusive rights and ownership of all new IP related to AZD1656 and AZD5658 for human applications.

Through the partnership, the company aims to enter into an estimated animal health market of $15 billion. The deal also helps to generate cost-effective preclinical data, which has the potential to reduce risk and accelerate human clinical trials, cutting development timelines and costs.

"This cost-efficient collaboration allows Conduit to accelerate its understanding of AZD1656's mechanism of action, safety profile, and potential efficacy across species, while retaining 100% ownership of all data and intellectual property generated relating to AZD1656 and AZD5658 for human applications. The partnership not only enhances Conduit's core human therapeutic pipeline but also opens potential new revenue streams in the high-growth veterinary market, creating a dual-track value proposition for its shareholders," Conduit said in a statement.