PCI Biotech consortium awarded €1.1 M Eurostars grant

Grant

A consortium of three Norwegian biotechs, PCI Biotech, SpectraCure and siRNAsense, has been €1.1 million over 3 years from the Eurostars Programme. The award is for a project entitled, “Photochemical Internalisation for delivery of short interfering RNA (siRNA) - towards safe and specific cancer therapy.”

The three aim to develop their complementary technologies to devise a method for the efficient, light-directed delivery of siRNA to tumours.  SiRNAs are gene-silencing entities that need to be targeted to within cells to be effective.

Per Walday, CEO of PCI Biotech, said, “The support gives financial backing in a critical phase of the development of the PCI technology, as well as an international collaborative opportunity between companies with innovative complementary technologies. We are very pleased that independent European experts share our view that photochemical internalisation may play an important role in future medical treatments.”

PCI Biotech was spun out of another Norwegian biotech, Photocure AB, in 2008 to develop a novel light-directed drug delivery system based on photochemical internalisation (PCI) technology. The research, originating from the Norwegian Radium Hospital, involves injecting target cells with a photosensitiser. Therapeutic molecules are then delivered to the cells and when these are illuminated the cells’ endosomes are ruptured, allowing successful delivery of the drug.

PCI can enhance the delivery of all molecules taken into the cell by endocytosis. This includes most types of macromolecules, drugs carried by antibodies or nanoparticles, as well as some small-molecule drugs. In addition, PCI reduces the side effects of efficient, but very toxic, anti-cancer compounds by restricting their effects to the target site.

The company’s first clinical study combining the proprietary photosensitiser Amphinex with the cytotoxic agent bleomycin is scheduled to start in 2009.