17.12.2014, 16:20
Midatech Pharma awarded EU grant
OREANDA-NEWS. Midatech Pharma (AIM: MTPH), a nanomedicine company developing and commercialising multiple therapeutic products to enhance the delivery of medicines in major diseases with high unmet medical needs, is pleased to announce that a consortium of academic and industry groups including Midatech has been awarded a €3.8 million European Union grant.
The grant will fund a project entitled "IMMUNOSHAPE" which aims to train a new generation of scientists capable of applying state of the art synthesis and screening technology to develop new lead structures for highly selective glycan based multivalent immunotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and allergy.
Midatech is applying its glycan coated gold nanoparticle (GNP) technology platform to the treatment of diabetes, a range of orphan oncology indications including brain, liver, pancreatic and ovarian cancer and neurological/ophthalmologic conditions, most of which have multi-\$100 million or multi-\$billion markets.
Of the total grant, €227,000 is for Midatech directly, with the balance going to the consortium of nine leading academic groups with expertise in automated solid-phase carbohydrate synthesis, microarray based high-throughput screening technology, tumour immunology, structural glycobiology, multivalent systems and medicinal chemistry along with 4 industrial partners active in nanomedicine, immunotherapy, medicinal device development.
Commenting on the grant award, Dr Jim Philips, CEO of Midatech Pharma, said: "I am pleased that Midatech and its consortium partners have been chosen to receive this grant award from the European Union. The training of new scientists with the skills to develop and apply glycan based immunotherapeutics such as Midatech's carbohydrate GNP-based treatments for diabetes and cancers will help to ensure these types of improved therapeutics are more rapidly delivered to patients for which there is great medical need."
About Midatech Pharma PLC
Midatech Pharma is a nanomedicine company developing and commercialising multiple therapeutic products to enhance the delivery of medicines in major diseases with high unmet medical needs. The Group has a strong pipeline of product candidates in clinical and pre-clinical development with a clear focus on the key therapeutic areas of diabetes, cancer and neurological/ophthalmological diseases.
Central to Midatech's business are two platform technologies that may be used alone or potentially in combination and are designed to enable the targeted delivery ('right place') and controlled release ('right time') of existing drugs. Midatech's core platform is a pioneering drug conjugate delivery system based on gold-nanoparticles (GNPs) combined with existing drugs for targeted release at specific organs, cells or sites of disease. The Group's secondary platform (acquired through the acquisition of Q Chip) involves the consistent and precise encapsulation of active drug compounds within polymer microspheres that are designed to release the drug into the body in a highly controlled manner over a prolonged period of time.
The Group is collaborating with a number of universities, speciality and major pharmaceutical companies to develop its platform technologies into a broad number of products in order to achieve a range of potential revenue opportunities within priority therapeutic areas.
Midatech operates an in-house state-of-the-art nanoparticle manufacturing facility, based in Bilbao, Spain. The site has capacity for manufacturing sufficient materials for clinical trials and is fully licensed by the Spanish Medicines Agency for European compliance.
The Group is headquartered in Oxford, UK and employs 49 staff including 14 Oxford, UK, 17 in Cardiff, UK and 18 in Bilbao, Spain. Across the Group there are 32 qualified scientists.
The grant will fund a project entitled "IMMUNOSHAPE" which aims to train a new generation of scientists capable of applying state of the art synthesis and screening technology to develop new lead structures for highly selective glycan based multivalent immunotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and allergy.
Midatech is applying its glycan coated gold nanoparticle (GNP) technology platform to the treatment of diabetes, a range of orphan oncology indications including brain, liver, pancreatic and ovarian cancer and neurological/ophthalmologic conditions, most of which have multi-\$100 million or multi-\$billion markets.
Of the total grant, €227,000 is for Midatech directly, with the balance going to the consortium of nine leading academic groups with expertise in automated solid-phase carbohydrate synthesis, microarray based high-throughput screening technology, tumour immunology, structural glycobiology, multivalent systems and medicinal chemistry along with 4 industrial partners active in nanomedicine, immunotherapy, medicinal device development.
Commenting on the grant award, Dr Jim Philips, CEO of Midatech Pharma, said: "I am pleased that Midatech and its consortium partners have been chosen to receive this grant award from the European Union. The training of new scientists with the skills to develop and apply glycan based immunotherapeutics such as Midatech's carbohydrate GNP-based treatments for diabetes and cancers will help to ensure these types of improved therapeutics are more rapidly delivered to patients for which there is great medical need."
About Midatech Pharma PLC
Midatech Pharma is a nanomedicine company developing and commercialising multiple therapeutic products to enhance the delivery of medicines in major diseases with high unmet medical needs. The Group has a strong pipeline of product candidates in clinical and pre-clinical development with a clear focus on the key therapeutic areas of diabetes, cancer and neurological/ophthalmological diseases.
Central to Midatech's business are two platform technologies that may be used alone or potentially in combination and are designed to enable the targeted delivery ('right place') and controlled release ('right time') of existing drugs. Midatech's core platform is a pioneering drug conjugate delivery system based on gold-nanoparticles (GNPs) combined with existing drugs for targeted release at specific organs, cells or sites of disease. The Group's secondary platform (acquired through the acquisition of Q Chip) involves the consistent and precise encapsulation of active drug compounds within polymer microspheres that are designed to release the drug into the body in a highly controlled manner over a prolonged period of time.
The Group is collaborating with a number of universities, speciality and major pharmaceutical companies to develop its platform technologies into a broad number of products in order to achieve a range of potential revenue opportunities within priority therapeutic areas.
Midatech operates an in-house state-of-the-art nanoparticle manufacturing facility, based in Bilbao, Spain. The site has capacity for manufacturing sufficient materials for clinical trials and is fully licensed by the Spanish Medicines Agency for European compliance.
The Group is headquartered in Oxford, UK and employs 49 staff including 14 Oxford, UK, 17 in Cardiff, UK and 18 in Bilbao, Spain. Across the Group there are 32 qualified scientists.
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