Promatix wins Innovate UK grant to push cancer drug toward candidate nomination
What's the deal? UK biotech Promatix BiosciencesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has won a grant from Innovate UKDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s Biomedical Catalyst programme to advance PBS293-exatecan, its lead cancer therapy. The non-dilutive funding supports the drug's progress toward development candidate nomination.
What does the company do? Based in London and Cambridge, Promatix develops cancer therapies using cis-bispecific antibodies. Its lead programme, PBS293-exatecan, is a first-in-class EGFR × EphA2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting colorectal cancer (CRC) and other solid tumours.
What's the money for? The grant funds manufacturing scale-up, additional preclinical proof-of-concept in cell-line-derived and patient-derived xenograft models, and IND-enabling regulatory safety studies. Work will run with UK contract research organisations Abzena, Crown Bioscience, and Labcorp UK.
What's the endgame? PBS293 targets EGFR and EphA2, two antigens co-expressed on colorectal tumour cells, using a tumour-selective "AND-gate" design meant to widen the therapeutic window. In preclinical studies, the conjugate killed colorectal cancer cell lines while sparing normal skin and vascular cells. Promatix also plans to extend the approach to oesophageal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The company frames the goal as building an investor-ready data package. "By scaling up our lead conjugate and testing it in both cell-line and patient-derived models, alongside the regulatory safety studies expected for an ADC, we plan to assemble the industry-standard data package that partners and investors are looking for," said chief scientific officer and co-founder Roy Pettipher.
The signal: Non-dilutive grants let early biotechs generate preclinical evidence without giving up equity. Chief executive officer and co-founder Michael Hunter called the award "strong external validation" of both the lead programme and the discovery platform behind it — a step toward attracting the partners and capital needed for clinical development.
Read more: EQS News
Image credit: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
