Research collaboration update

RNS Number : 3130G

N4 Pharma PLC

05 November 2018

 

05 November 2018

N4 Pharma Plc

("N4 Pharma" or the "Company")

Research collaboration update

N4 Pharma Plc (AIM: N4P), the specialist pharmaceutical company developing a novel delivery system for vaccines and cancer treatments, today provides an update on its collaboration with MedImmune, following the conclusion of the Innovate UK feasibility grant announced on 2 February 2018.

The grant was provided by Innovate UK to co-fund a collaborative project with MedImmune to explore the manufacture of a prototype nanomedicine using N4 Pharma's Nuvec® system. The initial term of the project with MedImmune was a period of nine months ending 31 October 2018. In total, the Company will receive £63,000 from Innovate UK. 

The Company is pleased to announce that MedImmune has confirmed its committment to investigating non-lipid nanoparticle technologies for mRNA and pDNA delivery and its intention to continue to work with N4 Pharma to conduct further ongoing research with a view to agreeing terms for co-development of an optimised version of Nuvec® under an appropriate collaboration agreement.

Nigel Theobald, CEO of N4 Pharma commented: 

"The grant has allowed us to take a positive step forward with our Nuvec® delivery system and we are very grateful for the support provided by Innovate UK and MedImmune.

"We are delighted that MedImmune is continuing to work with N4 Pharma to evaluate the potential of our Nuvec® system. MedImmune is able to provide considerable expertise and resources for this work and their continued support for N4 Pharma and Nuvec® is a clear indication of Nuvec®'s potential as a non-lipid, non-viral vaccine delivery technology and an example of how we can establish separate agreements for different versions of the Nuvec® platform technology."

About the Innovate grant

The grant was provided from Innovate UK's Medicines Manufacturing Round 1: Challenge Fund, which itself is funded through the UK Government's £70m Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to speed up the development of new medicines. It was provided to enable N4 Pharma to develop manufacturing methods for Nuvec® particles loaded with therapeutic pDNA/mRNA encoding antigens and to demonstrate that such nanoparticles can be manufactured to the quality required for in-vivo studies. MedImmune has been evaluating these Nuvec® formulations in relevant in-vitro and in-vivo models to demonstrate if they are able to deliver functional pDNA/mRNA capable of inducing an immune response.

Enquiries:

N4 Pharma Plc Nigel Theobald, CEO	Via Alma PR
Allenby Capital Limited James Reeve/Virginia Bull/Asha Chotai	Tel: [phone]
Alma PR Josh Royston Robyn Fisher	Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]

About N4 Pharma

N4 Pharma is a specialist pharmaceutical company developing a novel delivery system for vaccines and cancer treatments using its unique silica nanoparticle delivery system called Nuvec®

Nuvec® has shown to be capable of loading and delivering mRNA and pDNA into cells to the required level needed to generate an immune response. Further work will be undertaken for the direct loading and delivery of peptides and proteins using Nuvec®.

N4 Pharma's business model is to partner with companies developing novel antigens for vaccines and cancer treatments to use Nuvec® as the delivery vehicle to get their antigen into cells to express the protein needed for the required immune response. As these products progress through pre clinical and clinical programs N4 will receive up front and milestone payments and ultimately royalty payments once products reach the market.

About MedImmune UK

MedImmune is part of Astra Zeneca, having been acquired in 2007 for $15.6bn. It is a leading global biologics R&D company with one of the largest, most robust pipelines in the industry, including more than 120 research projects and product candidates, that comprise nearly half of AstraZeneca's overall R&D portfolio. It is focused on three core therapeutic areas: Oncology; Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmune; and Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease. For further information visit:

https://www.medimmune.com/

About Innovate UK

Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. It works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy. For further information visit:

www.innovateuk.gov.uk

 

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