Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The laboratories, which consolidate Adprotech’s activities under one roof, have been substantially upgraded to meet the company’s needs and include tissue culture and molecular biology suites, a separate fermentation facility, plus spacious and well-equipped development and protein function labs.

The company has spent its formative years building what CEO Geoff Race believes is a solid platform for long term growth.

The key to Adprotech’s success so far, according to Race, has been the strength of its science, its ability to raise funds at the right times, secure key global partnerships, and remain focused on its two-tiered business plan - which is to develop a strong drug pipeline using its proprietary technologies which are also being partnered with selected collaborators.

Having secured £5.4 million start-up investment in 1997, Adprotech raised a total of £18.3m last year in two separate rounds, the second of which in December raised £12.7m.

This has allowed the company to concentrate on forging partnerships for its technology platforms and developing its drug pipeline.

The company has a very promising drug pipeline - its rheumatoid arthritis treatment, APT070C, started Phase I trials in April and is aimed at a market predicted to grow to $6.6 billion by 2009. There are a number of follow-up compounds in earlier stage development and the company’s anti-malaria vaccine candidate APT2268 has successfully passed several preclinical milestones and is tilting at a market with significant growth potential. The market for travellers and military alone is valued at around $100m - $200m per year.

Adprotech has developed two unique revenue-generating protein engineering technologies – Immudaptin TM, which supports the development of new and improved vaccines through targeting the immune system; and Prodaptin-MTM - which localises protein therapeutics, and other drugs to specific cells or tissues more effectively.

It is these platforms that Race believes have insulated Adprotech from market forces in developing its products.

He said: “Major pharmaceutical companies like Powderject, Chiron, Wyerth Lederle, Genentech and Elan Pharmaceuticals are modifying their products with our technology. They are very important sources of short term revenue for us and their involvement validates and endorses our technologies.

“Partnerships such as these will allow greater value-creation in the long-term. They allow us to retain control over our own products in-house for longer which, in turn, will enhance product and corporate value.”

Race believes the company has sufficient revenues to take it’s products to Phase II, beyond which it will look to partners to conduct Phase III studies.

He said: “Flotation is certainly one of the options as we look to the future, but it is heavily reliant on certain factors and, having raised £12.7m at the end of last year, we have no immediate requirement for additional funding.”

Adprotech’s protein engineering capabilities have even broader applications following the Human Genome project and Race believes that many companies will want to collaborate with Adprotech in the future.

He said: “I think there are very few biotech companies that can claim to have all the answers on their own. However, if you can get two or three companies working together with complementary technologies you get synergy. Adprotech is continuously on the lookout for partnering opportunities.”

“The Human Genome Project, in particular, presents us with a great opportunity. In order to get a real therapeutic entity from the work that has been carried out so far, you need protein engineering expertise and drug development capabilities. That marks us out as a natural partner for genomics companies looking to broaden their business base.”

Entries for this year’s Awards are running at a record rate and sponsors are urging companies not to leave it until the official closing date of November 30 to submit their forms.

Glittering prizes await the winners at a champagne presentation dinner next February. Meanwhile, you can lift morale and raise your profile by entering now. Past winners have clinched funding and sustained growth on the back of these rigorously judged and highly prestigious Awards.