The UK is home to several biotech hubs, including the famous ‘golden triangle’, made up of Oxford, Cambridge, and London. In fact, after a $700 million surge in funding in the third quarter of 2023, the UK biotech scene is now one of the most vibrant in Europe, laying the foundation for numerous companies to develop innovative technologies, some of which have spun out of the nation’s most prestigious universities. In this article, we take a look at 16 UK biotech companies you should know.
Amphista Therapeutics Back to Top
Amphista Therapeutics is focused on transforming the lives of patients with severe diseases, with a particular focus on cancer. The company is applying its proprietary Amphista degrader platform to advance new approaches in targeted protein degradation (TPD). Its next-generation bifunctional molecules use a novel approach that makes use of a wider range of the body’s own innate protein degrading mechanisms than those used by most other TPD companies. This proprietary approach offers the potential to overcome many of the limitations seen with current TPD approaches – such as those associated with the use of a narrow range of protein degrading mechanisms – providing the opportunity to treat a wider range of diseases.
In May last year, the UK biotech company announced that it had achieved its first discovery milestone under its collaboration and license agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb. This agreement was formed in 2022, and included a $30 million upfront payment, the potential for up to $1.25 billion in performance-based milestone payments, and payment for a limited expansion of the collaboration, as well as royalties on global net sales of products.
Furthermore, in January 2024, Amphista unveiled new data demonstrating the potential of its protein degraders in animal models, which marks a step toward bringing its technology to the clinic. The findings showed the company’s therapies reduced tumor size and boosted survival, and also successfully knocked down target proteins in the brains of dogs and monkeys.
