Biotech funding for pioneering cancer research tests

The Medicines Discovery Catapult

Biotech company Sixfold Bioscience is to test a pioneering system designed to deliver drugs directly to cancerous cells after receiving a grant from Innovate UK.

It is an 18-month project in partnership with the Medicines Discovery Catapult at Alderley Edge that will ultimately enable the rapid commercialisation and clinical advancement of Sixfold’s core platform technology.

Dr Anna Perdrix Rosell, managing director of Sixfold Bioscience, said: “We are confident that by tapping into MDC’s unique drug development expertise and facilities, the collaboration will accelerate the preclinical development of our drug delivery system and its commercialisation.

“Our team’s ultimate goal is to unlock the true potential of siRNA therapeutics for cancer patients, and this collaboration takes us one step closer.”

The project is testing a technique to deliver the drugs without impacting the healthy cells around the cancerous cells.

Sixfold Bioscience has developed Programmable Oligonucleotide Delivery System (PODS), which delivers short interfering RNA (siRNA) gene silencing cargo to specific cancer cells.

It will benefit from the pre-clinical expertise and imaging facilities at Medicines Discovery Catapult.

Prof Peter Simpson, chief scientific officer at Medicines Discovery Catapult, added: “Drawing on MDC’s strong track record of advancing drug delivery modalities and of complex medicines validation, this new partnership has the potential to rapidly progress this delivery modality towards commercial viability.”

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