Biomedical Catalyst award secured for new approaches for hard-to-treat tumours

BioMoti, Pharmidex and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have been announced as the awardee of the Biomedical Catalyst funding for the support of preclinical studies of new therapeutic approaches for hard-to-treat tumours.

The grant of £662,222 is to be awarded by Innovate UK and is co-funded by a further £226,769 investment from BioMoti and Pharmidex — the industrial partners of the project.

The project will focus on Oncojan, BioMoti’s approach, which is a sustained release precision therapeutics platform targeting CD95L mediated tumour immune evasion, and will use Pharmidex’s knowledge of preclinical drug development and QMUL’s pathology expertise in mechanisms of disease. It is set to last two years and will investigate precision delivery of drugs to solid tumour sites and immune system activation due to CD95L targeting of tumours.

“Precise oncology drugs, and especially those that can activate the immune system, are rapidly emerging with major clinical trial successes registered for both antibody and cell-based approaches such as Merck’s Keytruda or Novartis’s Kymriah,” said Dr Davidson Ateh, CEO of BioMoti. “It is exciting for us to be supported by Innovate UK to explore our platform’s interactions with the immune system following promising efficacy data in cancer models. BioMoti is making great progress on a final seed investment round to support commercialisation and we welcome enquiries from qualified investors.”

“We are very pleased to join BioMoti and QMUL in the preclinical development of the Oncojan platform,” added Dr Chris Ireson, head of oncology at Pharmidex. “This Innovate UK funded project is an exciting approach to cancer therapy that could have a significant impact on patient lives.”

“Partnering on this Biomedical Catalyst award is a great achievement for the Pharmidex oncology research team,” explained Dr Mohammad Alavijeh, CEO of Pharmidex. “This recently established group adds to our well established expertise in ADMET, PK, bioanalysis and CNS.”

Professor Joanne Martin, professor of pathology at QMUL, stated: “Oncojans were first developed in my laboratory here at Queen Mary University of London with support from the BBSRC, Heptagon Fund and Barts and The London Charity. We are passionate about what a difference we could make for patients, and it is great to have secured Innovate UK funding.”