The total value of the grant will be £794,626 of which IONTAS will receive 70% from the Biomedical Catalyst Primer initiative established by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
Chronic pain is a major global healthcare problem affecting 25-35% of the world’s population. It carries a significant socio-economic burden and has an estimated global market value of $83bn by 2024.1 IONTAS aims to generate therapeutic candidates that overcome issues with current opioid-based treatments, such as inconsistent efficacy and significant side-effects (e.g. tolerance, addiction and overdose).
IONTAS’ KnotBody format fuses knottins, small peptides found in venom toxins, within an antibody CDR loop, allowing the ion channel modulating functionality of knottins to be combined with the specificity and in vivo half-life of monoclonal antibodies. Using this technology, IONTAS has developed a Nav1.7-targeted KnotBody to block pain transmission. The grant will be used to improve target specificity and potency of this KnotBody using well-established methods pioneered by the team at IONTAS and its founding scientists.
Dr John McCafferty, CEO and Founder of IONTAS, said: “KnotBody technology allows for selective targeting of ion channels, a class of therapeutic proteins previously seen as difficult to target with antibodies. The co-funding from Innovate UK is a further vindication of the novel science IONTAS is developing and we are excited to expand this technology further, to help generate therapeutic molecules for pain management.”
Neil Butt, CBO of IONTAS commented: “IONTAS strives to offer market-leading services, technology development and innovative therapeutic candidates. We see this grant as a platform which will allow IONTAS to leverage its scientific and commercial expertise into new opportunities and to further develop its business through collaborative partnerships in drug discovery and development.”
For further information about IONTAS’ KnotBody technology: https://www.iontas.co.uk/technologies/
1Pain Management Therapeutics Market: Global industry analysis, size, share, growth, trends and forecast 2017-2025. Transparency Market research 2017.
About IONTAS www.iontas.co.uk
IONTAS is a biotechnology company focused on antibody discovery and cutting-edge technology development. IONTAS offers services for antibody discovery using Phage Display Technology; and the supply of bespoke phage display libraries. In addition, IONTAS offers proprietary antibody discovery platforms including Mammalian Display where full length antibodies are expressed in the context of a mammalian cell thereby allowing selection based on function, stability, expression and developability; IONTAS have also developed a novel “KnotBody” format which facilitates the targeting of antibodies to ion channels, GPCRs and proteases.
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas.
We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth.
We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions.
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.
For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org