Promatix Biosciences Awarded Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Grant to Advance First-in-Class EGFR × EphA2 Cis-Bispecific ADC

  • Non-dilutive Biomedical Catalyst funding from Innovate UK will support the advancement of Promatix’s lead cis-bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), PBS293-exatecan, towards development candidate nomination
  • Award funds manufacturing scale-up, additional preclinical proof-of-concept in cell-line-derived (CDX) and patient-derived (PDX) xenograft models, and IND-enabling regulatory safety studies
  • Programme also expands the potential of Promatix’s lead EGFR x EphA2 programme beyond colorectal cancer (CRC), with the same tumour-selective approach now being applied to oesophageal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

London and Cambridge, UK, July 28 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Promatix Biosciences Ltd (Promatix), an emerging UK-based biotechnology company developing innovative new classes of cancer therapies using cis-bispecific antibodies, today announced that it has been awarded a grant under the Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry-led R&D small projects competition. The funding will support continued development of the Company’s lead programme, PBS293-exatecan, a first-in-class EGFR × EphA2 cis-bispecific ADC for the treatment of CRC and other solid tumours.

The award will fund the scale-up and conjugation of PBS293 with an exatecan payload, additional preclinical proof-of-concept studies in both CDX and PDX models of CRC, and IND-enabling regulatory safety studies to support the nomination of PBS293-exatecan as a development candidate. In parallel, Promatix will apply its discovery platform to evaluate oesophageal cancer and NSCLC as additional indications. The work will be conducted with established UK-based contract research organisations, including Abzena, Crown Bioscience and Labcorp UK.

PBS293 targets EGFR and EphA2, two antigens co-expressed on colorectal tumour cells. While EGFR is a clinically validated target in CRC, the benefit of EGFR-targeted antibodies such as cetuximab is limited to a subset of patients and constrained by toxicity arising from EGFR expression in healthy tissue. Building on previously reported preclinical data, Promatix has advanced an exatecan-based conjugate, selected for its established clinical safety profile and efficacy. In preclinical studies, PBS293-exatecan has demonstrated potent killing of colorectal cancer cell lines while substantially sparing normal human keratinocytes and endothelial cells — consistent with the tumour-selective “AND-gate” design intended to widen the therapeutic window.

“This award from Innovate UK enables us to generate the additional preclinical data needed to move PBS293-exatecan towards development candidate nomination,” said Dr. Roy Pettipher, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Promatix. “By scaling up our lead conjugate and testing it in both cell-line and patient-derived models, alongside the regulatory safety studies expected for an ADC, we plan to assemble the industry-standard data package that partners and investors are looking for. PBS293-exatecan combines potent tumour-cell killing with sparing of normal skin and vascular cells in our preclinical work, reflecting the tumour selectivity that is central to our cis-bispecific approach.”

“Non-dilutive funding of this kind is strong external validation of both our lead programme and the proteomics-driven discovery platform behind it,” said Dr. Michael Hunter, CEO and Co-Founder of Promatix. “It will enable us to advance PBS293-exatecan in colorectal cancer while extending the same logic-gated approach to further solid  tumours, including oesophageal and non-small cell lung cancer. Generating robust efficacy and safety data in this programme is a key inflection point that we expect to underpin a future pharma partnership and to support our planned Series A financing, enabling us to build a broader pipeline of tumour-selective bispecific ADCs from a UK base.”

The programme reinforces Promatix’s integrated platform, which combines large-scale tumour surface proteomics with logic-gated computational modelling to identify complementary antigen pairs and expand the universe of tumour-selective targets available for next-generation ADCs. EGFR × EphA2 was identified and prioritised through this platform, and success in the funded programme is intended to provide further validation of the approach across additional cancer indications.

About PBS293-exatecan

PBS293-exatecan is a full IgG1 cis-bispecific antibody-drug conjugate targeting EGFR and EphA2, in development for advanced colorectal cancer. Through cis-bispecific “AND-gate” targeting, strong binding, payload delivery and uptake occur only when both antigens are present on the same tumour cell. PBS293 is designed to address a broader patient population than current EGFR-targeted antibodies — independent of RAS/BRAF mutation status and including right-sided colorectal tumours, for which treatments such as cetuximab are ineffective.

About the Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst

The Biomedical Catalyst is an Innovate UK programme supporting innovative UK businesses to develop solutions to health and healthcare challenges.  Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is creating a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations. Innovate UK provides targeted sectors with expertise, facilities and funding to test, demonstrate and evolve their ideas, driving UK productivity and economic growth.

About Promatix Biosciences Ltd

Promatix is a UK-based oncology drug discovery and development company developing next-generation bispecific antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) through rational, data-driven cis-target pairing.

The Company’s approach centres on identifying optimal combinations of cancer surface markers for cis-bispecific “AND-gate” targeting, in which strong binding, payload delivery and uptake occur only when two distinct antigens are present on the same tumour cell. This dual-antigen engagement is designed to enhance tumour selectivity. By exploiting hybrid avidity, Promatix aims to reduce on-target off-tumour toxicity, enhance efficacy and expand the range of targets that can be addressed with ADCs.

At the core of the platform is TxPro, a comprehensive tumour surface proteomics database covering membrane proteins across multiple cancer types. TxPro is supported by proprietary computational analytics (CipherPro) to systematically mine tumour-selective antigen pairs, affinity-engineering capabilities (AviPro) to optimise bispecific engagement, and a modular functional validation framework for rapid evaluation and lead selection (BiPro).

Promatix is developing a pipeline of novel bispecific ADCs in colorectal cancer and additional solid tumour indications.

For more information, visit www.pro-matix.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Promatix Biosciences Ltd
info@promatix.com

MEDIA CONTACT:

MC Services AG
Julia Bittner
+49 211 529 252 28

In the US:

Laurie Doyle
+1 339 832 0752
promatix@mc-services.eu

 

Dr. Graeme Martin

Executive Chairman

Graeme is a Pharmaceutical industry veteran and life-science venture capitalist with over three decades of innovative therapeutic R&D experience with Wellcome, GlaxoWellcome, Roche and Takeda that produced 4 IND submissions. He was the preclinical lead for the development of Zomig for migraine acute treatment. He also has two decades of life-science investment experience, having built and led the corporate venture unit of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.  He currently serves strategic advisory and Board roles with private stage biotechnology companies and life science venture capital funds (ALSA Ventures; Harrington Discovery Institute) in the UK and USA, and was Chair of DJS Antibodies, acquired by AbbVie in 2022.

Bruce Goldsmith

Advisor, Operating Partner, ALSA Ventures

Bruce has a strong background in Pharma and Biotech leadership over the past 25 years. He held progressively senior roles at Pharma and Biotech companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Allos Therapeutics and Lycera Corp. Following this experience, he joined Deerfield Healthcare as a Venture Partner and led a new company creation as CEO. He then joined Passage Bio as CEO leading an IPO and advancing four programs through IND. Throughout his career Bruce has led business development deals, strategy and operations. Bruce holds a PhD in Biology and an MBA.

Richard Onyett

Business Development Director

Richard Onyett, Business Development Director has worked with Promatix since Autumn 2025 to lead outreach with regard to commercial partnerships and licensing of technology and/or product assets. Prior to joining Promatix he was V.P. Business Development at ADC Therapeutics from 2012 until late 2024. Prior to that he served as Head of Business Development for Spirogen Ltd 2011 to 2012 and Oxagen Limited from 2006 to 2011. Richard led the business development programme at KuDOS Limited which resulted in the sale of the company to AstraZeneca (2001-2006). Prior to this Richard served as Head of Business and Corporate at several biotech companies and for two major pharma companies in marketing and business development roles.

Lorna Collings

CFO

Lorna has more than twenty years of experience in private equity and venture capital with roles at EQT, Hermes GPE, Citco, Coller Capital, Ariadne Capital, Actis and BancBoston Capital. She holds a BA in Applied Psychology and is registered with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA).

Dr. Robert Balfour

Non-Executive Director

Robert has a successful background in venture capital and Big Pharma, with companies such as GSK and Eli Lilly. He is a passionate start-up entrepeneur with experience in university technology transfer. Robert holds a BSc in Physiology and a PhD in Neurophysiology.

Alek Safarian

Non-Executive Director

Alek has a diverse background in drug development spanning more than thirty years. Trained as a pharmacist, he worked in regulatory affairs and clinical research roles for European and US-based multinational pharmaceutical companies in Australia, with responsibility across the Asia-Pacific. He subsequently founded Novotech, a Sydney-based contract research organisation working with hundreds of clinical stage biotech companies over a twenty-one year period. Alek holds a BPharm and an MBA from the University of Sydney.

Dr. Daniel Holdbrook

Principal Data Scientist

Daniel currently leads efforts in applying data analytics, proteomics, and computational modelling to target identification and drug discovery. He has 16 years of experience in these areas and has worked at prestigious research institutions in the UK and Singapore. Additionally, he has extensive experience in developing ‘omics’ solutions within biotech start-up companies. Daniel holds a BSc in Biochemistry, an MSc in Bioinformatics, and a PhD in Computational Biochemistry.

Dr. Katherine Vousden

Vice President, Research

Katherine is a proven leader in biologics discovery, with 25 years experience across biotech, biopharm and service organisations where she has built an extensive portfolio of candidate biologics in multiple disease areas. She has had significant strategic, project and group leadership roles at MedImmune/ AstraZeneca, Charles River and most recently held the position of site lead for AbCellera’s UK-based laboratory. Katherine holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of Leicester.

Dr. Shan Vinall

Project Manager

Shan has over 20 years biotech experience in drug discovery and development. She has previously held project management positions at Atopix and Oxagen where she gained extensive experience in the management of outsourced preclinical and clinical development studies, documentation, project planning and budgeting. Shan holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Intracellular signalling.

Dr. Roy Pettipher

CSO

Roy is a co-founder of Promatix with over 30 years of industry experience in anti-inflammatory and oncology drug discovery and development. He is the founder and CSO at Orca Pharmaceuticals, a program licensed to AstraZeneca and has previously served as the research director at Atopix, which was sold to Chiesi in in 2016. He has also held senior R&D executive positions in biotech (Oxagen & AdoRx)and Pharma(Pfizer & Wellcome). Roy holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of London.

Dr. Mark Edwards

CTO

Mark is a co-founder of Promatix and has a 40-year background in applying protein engineering to drug discovery and development. He previously held positions at Searle, PA Technology, British Biotech and was the founding Director at Oxagen. Prior to joining Promatix, he was as a consultant working with start-ups on a wide range of products ranging from antibody therapies to antibiotic resistance and vaccines. He holds a BA in Biochemistry and DPhil in bacterial gene expression from Oxford.

Dr. Mick Hunter

CEO

Mick is a co-founder of Promatix and has over 40 years biotech experience spanning concept to clinic for multiple IND candidates across a range of therapeutic indications including management of process development and GMP biologics production. He has held senior R&D executive positions at GD Searle, Atopix, Oxagen, British Biotech. He was the CSO of Atopix, sold to Chiesi in 2016, and founder and CEO of Orca Pharmaceuticals, whose ROR gamma program was licensed to AstraZeneca and to Brickell Biotech. More recently Mick was Entrepreneur in Residence at Evotec. He holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Nottingham.