Promatix Biosciences Awarded Innovate UK Grant to Advance First-in-Class EGFR × EphA2 Cis-Bispecific ADC
Key Insights
Promatix Biosciences has received a Biomedical Catalyst grant from Innovate UK (search) to advance its lead ADC candidate, PBS293-exatecan (search), toward development candidate nomination.
The funding supports manufacturing scale-up, preclinical proof-of-concept in CDX and PDX colorectal cancer (search) models, and IND-enabling regulatory safety studies.
PBS293-exatecan (search) uses a cis-bispecific "AND-gate" approach targeting EGFR (search) and EphA2 (search) to achieve tumour-selective killing while sparing normal cells.
Promatix Biosciences Ltd (search), an emerging UK-based biotechnology company, has been awarded a grant under the Innovate UK (search) Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry-led R&D small projects competition to advance its lead programme, PBS293-exatecan (search). The first-in-class EGFR (search) × EphA2 (search) cis-bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) is being developed for the treatment of colorectal cancer (search) (CRC) and other solid tumours, with the non-dilutive funding set to propel the programme toward development candidate nomination.
The award will fund the scale-up and conjugation of PBS293 with an exatecan payload, additional preclinical proof-of-concept studies in both cell-line-derived (CDX) and patient-derived (PDX) xenograft models of CRC, and IND-enabling regulatory safety studies. The work will be conducted with established UK-based contract research organisations, including Abzena, Crown Bioscience and Labcorp UK.
"This award from Innovate UK (search) enables us to generate the additional preclinical data needed to move PBS293-exatecan (search) 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."
AND-Gate Targeting for Tumour Selectivity
PBS293 targets EGFR (search) and EphA2 (search), 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. Promatix's cis-bispecific "AND-gate" approach is designed so that strong binding, payload delivery, and uptake occur only when both antigens are present on the same tumour cell.
In preclinical studies, PBS293-exatecan (search) has demonstrated potent killing of colorectal cancer (search) cell lines while substantially sparing normal human keratinocytes and endothelial cells — consistent with the tumour-selective design intended to widen the therapeutic window. The exatecan payload was selected for its established clinical safety profile and efficacy. PBS293 is designed to address a broader patient population than current EGFR (search)-targeted antibodies, independent of RAS/BRAF mutation status and including right-sided colorectal tumours, for which treatments such as cetuximab are ineffective.
Expanding Beyond Colorectal Cancer (search)
In parallel with the CRC-focused studies, Promatix will apply its discovery platform to evaluate oesophageal cancer (search) and non-small cell lung cancer (search) (NSCLC) as additional indications. The same tumour-selective approach that underpins PBS293-exatecan (search) in CRC is now being applied to these solid tumour types.
"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 (search) in colorectal cancer (search) while extending the same logic-gated approach to further solid tumours, including oesophageal and non-small cell lung cancer (search)."
Dr. Hunter added that generating robust efficacy and safety data in this programme represents a key inflection point expected to underpin a future pharma partnership and support the company's planned Series A financing, enabling Promatix to build a broader pipeline of tumour-selective bispecific ADCs from a UK base.
Platform-Driven Discovery
The programme reinforces Promatix's integrated platform, which combines large-scale tumour surface proteomics (TxPro) with logic-gated computational modelling (CipherPro) to identify complementary antigen pairs and expand the universe of tumour-selective targets available for next-generation ADCs. The EGFR (search) × EphA2 (search) pairing 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. The platform also includes affinity-engineering capabilities (AviPro) to optimise bispecific engagement and a modular functional validation framework (BiPro) for rapid evaluation and lead selection.