FastForward Innovations Ltd’s (LON:FFWD) portfolio company Portage Biotech is to invest a further US$700,000 into Saugatuck Therapeutics after a successful proof of concept for its novel cancer drug delivery system.
Saugatuck is using aptamers as an alternative to monoclonal antibodies in cancer immunotherapy treatment.
In non-clinical in vivo experiments, the Saugatuck formulation performed favourably compared to a mouse PD1 antibody.
This confirmation of initial proof of concept triggered the next tranche of investment from Portage in Saugatuck, which will be used to explore multiple PD1 based, cancer-fighting co-formulations.
Ed McDermott, a FastForward director, said: "We are delighted that Saugatuck has reached this stage in its development of the NGL formulation triggering further investment from Portage to support its continued advancement.
"Portage facilitates the delivery of the critical funding that emerging biotechs need, enabling turnkey execution of commercially-informed development plans and we look forward to updating shareholders as other advances are made across its portfolio."
FastForward has a 1.18% stake in Portage.
Saugatuck is using NLG technology that has been commercially developed by Portage's joint venture partner, Immunova.
It allows different combinations of drugs to be encapsulated in a single nanomedicine and delivered selectively to the tumour microenvironment.
Separately, FastForward said Saugatick's work has also triggered a licence from D5 pharma to create additional proprietary DNA aptamers for immune-oncology targets.