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PhotoBiotics Raises Further Funding for Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs)

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PhotoBiotics Raises Further Funding for Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) London, 11 October 2011: PhotoBiotics Ltd is pleased to announce that it has completed a further equity financing by a syndicate of existing investors that will significantly extend the company's runway by funding a 2-year research programme to develop its unique and innovative proprietary OptiLink ADC technology platform. ^{1, 2} ADCs combine the pharmacological potency of small cytotoxic drugs with the high tumour antigen specificity of antibodies, providing targeted therapies for cancer and other diseases.

Currently available ADCs are based on whole monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), but drug-loading ratios tend to be low, due mainly to whole mAb-based ADCs being insoluble at higher drug loadings. However, PhotoBiotics' OptiLink technology platform ^{3, 4} addresses this shortcoming, showing quite counter-intuitively that attaching drug and/or imaging moieties to much smaller mAb fragments (scFvs) leads to soluble ADCs with higher drug loadings. Moreover, smaller scFv-based ADCs have superior pharmacokinetics/dynamics compared with mAbs, are easier to produce and formulate, and increase the versatility of most mAbs/scFvs. PhotoBiotics is currently testing an scFv-based ADC as a targeted MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) contrast agent.

"This vote of confidence from our existing investors is an important step forward for the company." says PhotoBiotics' Chairman Dr Till Medinger." The new funding allows us to exemplify our unique OptiLink technology in the exciting and lucrative ADC marketplace, with the potential to make PhotoBiotics highly competitive in targeted therapy, imaging, and other indications."

Notes For Editors

1. For more information on PhotoBiotics funding, please contact: Dr Elizabeth Rollinson Mob: +44 (0)7771 870410. Email: e.rollinson@photobiotics.com
2. 'Innovations in Biotechnology 2008: Development-Stage Companies and Scientific Findings Leading the Way', BioWorld Today, June 2008 http://www.bioworld.com/servlet/com.accumedia.web.Dispatcher?next=S08438_6064 .
3. 'Targeted photodynamic therapy with multiply loaded recombinant antibody fragments.' Internationa Journal of Cancer 2008; 122: 1155-1163.
4. 'Fluorescence characterisation of multiply-loaded anti-HER2 single-chain Fv-photosensitiser conjugates suitable for photodynamic therapy'. Photochemical and Photobiological. Sciences. 2007; 6: 933-939.