Therapeutic antibody development company Patrys Ltd (ASX:PAB) has bolstered its finances on receiving a rebate of $2.7 million for the 2022/2023 financial year under the Federal Government’s R&D Tax Incentive scheme.
This refund was received by the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Nucleus Therapeutics Pty Ltd and helps cover research and development (R&D) for the 2022/2023 financial year.
The R&D Tax Incentive helps companies innovate and grow by providing a tax offset for eligible research and development. The majority of the development costs associated with Patrys’ dexoymab program benefit from this scheme.
Towards clinical trial
Patrys chief executive officer and managing director Dr James Campbell said: “We continue to appreciate the support that the Federal Government provide for this program.
"The R&D Tax Incentive Refund strengthens Patrys’ cash position and will be primarily used for ongoing technology development of the PAT-DX1 lead clinical candidate in preparation for our anticipated clinical trial in 2024.”
About Patrys
Based in Melbourne, Patrys is focused on the development of its deoxymab platform of cell-penetrating antibodies as therapies for a range of different cancers.
Patrys’ deoxymab platform is based on the deoxymab 3E10 antibody that was first identified as an autoantibody in a mouse model of the human disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
While most antibodies bind to cell surface markers, deoxymab 3E10 penetrates into the cell nuclei and binds directly to DNA where it inhibits DNA repair processes. Cancer cells often have high levels of mutations and underlying deficiencies in the DNA repair mechanisms.
For these reasons, the additional inhibition of the DNA repair processes by deoxymab 3E10 can kill cancer cells but appears to have little impact on normal cells.
As a single agent, deoxymab 3E10 has been shown to significantly enhance the efficacy of both chemo- and radiotherapies. Further, deoxymab 3E10 can be conjugated to nanoparticles to target delivery of chemotherapeutics and imaging agents to tumours.
Two forms of deoxymab 3E10
Patrys has developed two humanised forms of deoxymab 3E10, both of which have improved activity over the original deoxymab 3E10 antibody.
PAT-DX1 is a dimer (two joined subunits) of the short chain from the binding domain of deoxymab 3E10, while PAT-DX3 is a full-sized IgG antibody.
In a range of pre-clinical studies, PAT-DX1 has shown significant ability to kill cancer cells in cell models, human tumour explants, xenograft and orthotopic models.
PAT-DX1 has been shown to cross the blood brain barrier, reduce tumour size, and increase survival in multiple animal models of brain cancer, other cancers and cancer metastases. It is tumour-agnostic, meaning that it can target many different tumour types in the body, regardless of specific tumour antigens.
Patrys believes that PATDX1 may have application across a wide range of cancers including gliomas, melanomas, prostate, breast, pancreatic and ovarian cancers.
Deoxymabs, such as PAT-DX1 and PAT-DX3, can be used to target nanoparticles carrying a payload of anti-cancer drugs specifically to tumours. This allows specific delivery of cancer drugs to multiple types of cancer while having minimal impact on normal, healthy cells.
Patents
Patrys’ rights to deoxymab 3E10 are part of a worldwide licence to develop and commercialise a portfolio of novel anti-DNA antibodies and antibody fragments, variants and conjugates discovered at Yale University as anti-cancer and diagnostic agents.
Six patents covering the unconjugated form of deoxymab 3E10 (and derivatives thereof) have been granted in Europe, Japan, China and three in the US, and five patents covering nanoparticle conjugation have been granted covering Australia, Canada, China, India and the USA.