Netscientific Regulatory News (NSCI)

NetScientific plc

("NetScientific" or the "Company" or the "Group")

ProAxsis awarded a Significant Innovate UK Grant

London, UK - July 24th 2017 - NetScientific plc ("NetScientific", AIM:NSCI), the transatlantic healthcare IP commercialisation group, announces an update for its portfolio company, ProAxsis.

Following its previous success in the BioMedical Catalyst competition, ProAxsis Limited has now gained further support for its ProteaseTag® technology through a project co-funded by the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK. ProAxsis has been awarded a grant to support its project titled: "Development of technology to support the advance of new protease therapeutics." The project will be conducted at the company's purpose-built laboratory facilities at Catalyst Inc., in Belfast. The Innovate UK grant will commit financial resources of £57,390, representing 60% of the total expected cost of the project.

Commenting on the news, Francois Martelet, Chief Executive Officer of Netscientific and Chairman of ProAxsis said: "We are very excited to announce that ProAxsis has been awarded this grant from the prestigious Innovate UK agency. The award represents external validation of the ProteaseTag® technology and will enable ProAxsis to generate further clinical data, helping ProAxsis advance towards near-term value inflection and commercialisation."

The full text of the announcement from ProAxsis can be found below.

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ProAxsis gains further support from Innovate UK

Date: July 24th, 2017

Following its previous success in the BioMedical Catalyst competition, ProAxsis Limited (www.proaxsis.com) has now gained further support for its ProteaseTag® technology, via a project co-funded by the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK. The project, entitled "Development of technology to support the advance of new protease therapeutics", has been awarded a grant in the Innovation in Health and Life Sciences Round 1 competition.

A number of pharmaceutical companies are currently developing inhibitors against protease targets, such as neutrophil elastase, as treatments of respiratory diseases including bronchiectasis, COPD and cystic fibrosis. ProAxsis has previously developed a laboratory-based immunoassay and a rapid point-of-care test for neutrophil elastase, utilising its ProteaseTag® technology, which such companies can benefit from. However, ProAxsis continues to seek to advance the sensitivity of its technology to maximise the range of biological samples it can be used with, and thereby improve the chances of success for these potentially important new therapeutics.

Speaking about the news, Dr David Ribeiro, CEO of ProAxsis, said: "Innovate UK programmes are always hugely competitive so we're delighted that our project has been selected and are extremely grateful to Innovate UK for their support. The development of suitable companion diagnostic tests is an essential part of the drug development process."

The project will commence in July 2017, and will be conducted at the company's purpose-built laboratory facilities at Catalyst Inc., in Belfast.

Any queries concerning ProAxsis' Immunoassays for measuring active neutrophil elastase and active plasmin, or any other aspects of the company's proprietary ProteaseTag® technology, can be directed to info@proaxsis.com. 

Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. It works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy. For further information, please visit www.innovateuk.gov.uk

About NetScientific

NetScientific is a transatlantic healthcare technology group with an investment strategy focused on sourcing, funding and commercialising technologies that significantly improve the health and well-being of people with chronic diseases. For more information, please visit the website at www.netscientific.net

About ProAxsis Limited:

ProAxsis is developing a range of products for the capture, detection and measurement of active protease biomarkers of disease. Its first commercialised immunoassay measures neutrophil elastase, a leading indicator of infection and inflammation in patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and bronchiectasis, and an important drug target. The rapid and easy-to-use tests being developed by ProAxsis incorporate patented ProteaseTags®; smart molecules which trap an active protease within a complex biological sample and enable a visual readout of its presence. ProteaseTags® provide a unique tool to identify and quantify active protease biomarkers and will assist in the clinical validation of new therapeutics.

ProAxsis is part of the NetScientific Group and is one of the Group's core portfolio companies. The company is also supported by QUBIS, the commercialisation arm of Queens University.