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mRNA vaccine company, pHion Therapeutics, has announced a joint Innovate UK award with Queen’s University Belfast. The £1million grant will fund a 24-month project to develop a multi-antigenic therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer. This next generation vaccine is possible because of pHion’s innovative technology which delivers the mRNA into antigen-presenting cells in stealth mode. The company’s proprietary RALA platform uses a peptide as the ‘taxi’ to deliver the mRNA cargo, and because the peptide is not recognised as foreign, no adverse response is triggered, and the mRNA trains the immune cells to attack the cancer.

The project is a collaboration between founder and CEO of pHion Therapeutics, Professor Helen McCarthy, and Dr Niamh Buckley, both from the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s. The £1million grant was awarded in the recent Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst 2022 Round 2: Industry-led Research & Development funding competition.

Prostate Cancer accounts for 7.3% of all cancers worldwide (1.4 million cases) and 27.8% of all cancers in the UK. The 5-year survival rate for the most aggressive form, metastatic Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC), is only 28.9% in the UK; and the incidence is also set to rise by a further 12% by 2035. Worldwide, a recent Global Cancer Observatory (GCO) study has predicted a 60% increase to ~2.3 million new cases and 740,000 deaths by 2040.

As Professor Helen McCarthy explains: ‘Given the likely trajectory for this aggressive disease, there is an urgent need to develop a next generation vaccine that can reduce mortality rates. Our vision is to begin large-scale toxicology studies by the end of the project and, from there, to progress to clinical trials.”

“The investment from Innovate UK will support growth in the global use of pHion’s unique technology, and further strengthen the UK’s position in the emerging gene therapy market.”

pHion Therapeutics, in partnership with the Centre for Process Innovation and Reach Regulatory, secure Sustainable Innovation Funding Award from Innovate UK

Collaboration builds on exciting pre-clinical work at pHion Therapeutics to develop an innovative RALA/RNAi therapy for COVID-19 patients

This award will accelerate the development of pHion Therapeutics’ nanoparticle technologies in partnership with the Centre for Process Innovation and Reach Regulatory.

This £300k award will enable pHion Therapeutics to realise the transformative potential of an ongoing project, which was also supported by Innovate UK’s COVID-19 Fast-Track Competition, to develop a RALA/RNAi Therapy for the transient knockdown of a key receptor for COVID-19 patients.

The Sustainable Innovation Award will accelerate and optimise the scale-up of the RALA/RNAi therapy to patient doses and develop the regulatory framework for the RALA technology.

The 9-month project will enable pHion to take this therapy onwards to the clinic and position RALA as the go-to delivery system for RNAi therapeutics to the lung.

Commenting on the collaboration, Professor Helen McCarthy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of pHion Therapeutics, said:

“The potential of RALA technology as an innovative RNAi therapy for COVID-19, as well as other lung targeted therapies, is significant. We are excited to work with the Centre for Process Innovation on the scale-up of RALA/RNAi nanoparticles and with Reach Regulatory to develop the requirements for clinic.”

Dr Graham Worrall, Chief Technologist at CPI added:

“CPI is delighted to be involved in the development of such an exciting and ground breaking technology. Working with such an innovative group of partners to improve the manufacturing process and corresponding scale up we look forward to helping bring this to patients as soon as possible.”

Dr Stephen Liggett, CEO at Reach Regulatory commented:

“This award provides a great opportunity to expedite the innovative RALA technology platform towards the clinic and provide significant patient benefits. I am delighted to be working on such an exciting project with pHion and CPI.”

Innovate UK Executive Chair Dr Ian Campbell said:

“In these difficult times we have seen the best of British business innovation. The pandemic is not just a health emergency but one that impacts society and the economy.

This project led by pHion Therapeutics, along with every initiative Innovate UK has supported through this fund, is an important step forward in driving sustainable economic development. Each one is also helping to realise the ambitions of hard-working people.”

The project aims to:(i) allow pHion to deliver against current market demand for pHion’s RALA drug delivery technology in our initial target market for nucleic acid (NA) therapeutics (DNA and RNA based

drugs) in the field of oncology; and (ii) assist pHion in developing our in-house service and manufacturing capabilities. Professor Helen McCarthy, CEO of pHion Therapeutics, commented: “We’re excited to embark on this project that will assist pHion with delivering against the incredible market demand we have seen for our RALA drug delivery technology and formulation services. We are extremely grateful to Invest NI, who are supporting our ongoing efforts to establish pHion as a global leader in precise and efficient drug delivery for anionic cargo using our RALA peptide-based nanoparticle.” pHion has developed a patented platform drug delivery technology termed RALA that can be used to deliver anionic compounds and oligonucleotide based therapeutic compounds in a targeted fashion in vivo.

If you would like to know more about pHion’s RALA technology, formulation services and how pHion Therapeutics can help you get the most out of your drug technology please get in touch info@phion.co.uk