London-based Epsilogen has been awarded a ￡1m grant from the UK’s innovation agency Innovate UK to further develop a novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody to treat cancer.

Epsilogen will collaborate with King’s College London (KCL) and use the funding from the grant to further develop the company’s novel cancer immunotherapeutic EPS 201.

Epsilogen’s share of the grant is ￡0.7m while the remaining ￡0.3m will be used by KCL to fund the research scientist and laboratory team working on the project.

The project follows and is founded upon the outputs from Epsilogen’s previous Biomedical Catalyst Primer grant, which aimed to move the EPS 201 programme closer to the clinic.

EPS 201 is a novel IgE-based therapeutic targeting HER2 positive solid tumours, harnessing the IgE-mediated immune response already showing promise clinically with Epsilogen’s lead drug MOv18-IgE.

According to Epsilogen, EPS 201 could address an unmet need in HER2+ breast cancer patients that fail to meet the HER2 expression level needed for treatment with Roche’s Herceptin (trastuzumab).

“We are proud to have been awarded another grant from Innovate UK for our pioneering work developing IgE-based therapeutics. It is a recognition of our progress to date and the potential that our therapies have in treating patients with cancer,” said Tim Wilson, chief executive officer of Epsilogen.