CRISM Therapeutics receives £896,088 Innovate UK grant for glioblastoma trial
What's the deal? CRISM TherapeuticsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (AIM:CRTX), a London-based company developing localised chemotherapy delivery systems, has received a £896,088 grant from Innovate UKDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to fund a Phase 2 clinical trial of its irinotecan-ChemoSeed treatment for glioblastoma — the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
The grant covers 70% of the total £1,280,125 project cost. It was awarded under the Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry-led R&D Large Projects competition, where CRISM scored 90.6%.
The 12-month trial will run across UK neuro-oncology centres, aiming to generate safety, dosing, and early efficacy data for patients with surgically resectable glioblastoma. Irinotecan-ChemoSeed is an implantable, biodegradable drug-delivery system designed to release chemotherapy directly at the tumour resection site.
Why now? Glioblastoma remains one of the deadliest cancers, with median survival of 8 to 15 months and a five-year survival rate below 5%. Around 3,500 new cases are diagnosed in the UK each year, and treatment options have barely improved in decades.
CRISM recently completed an equity raise that, combined with this non-dilutive grant, will fund the clinical programme. "This non-dilutive funding enables us to accelerate part 1 of our open-label registration-grade Phase 2 trial in glioblastoma," said Andrew Webb, executive chairman.
What could go wrong? Phase 2 trials are high-risk by nature — most cancer drug candidates fail before reaching market. The trial must first identify dose-limiting toxicities and validate safety before any efficacy signals can be assessed. A 12-month timeline is tight for generating meaningful clinical data, and the company will likely need further funding to complete later stages.
The signal: CRISM Therapeutics sits at the early growth stage, according to Dealroom, making non-dilutive government funding a lifeline for advancing capital-intensive clinical programmes. Innovate UK's backing underscores continued public appetite for de-risking UK-based biotech in areas where private capital alone rarely sustains companies through multi-phase trials — particularly in glioblastoma, where the dire survival statistics have attracted few new entrants and even fewer commercial breakthroughs.
Read more: Investing.com
