Second BIF grant gives Protagonist an edge

For drug design start-up Protagonist, tucking a second BIF grant in as many years under its belt should help smooth future discussions with commercial partners.

The Brisbane biotech this week gained $198,000 from the most recent Biotech Innovation Fund (BIF) round.

Last year, Protagonist received an initial BIF grant of $250,000 at about the same time that it was successfully raising $3 million in venture funding.

It is now in the early stages of preparing for a second round of fund raising which like the first will be managed by venture capitalist Start-Up Australia.

The latest BIF grant, besides being welcome in its own right, is the sort of validation that might make the fund-raising effort easier.

A history of winning BIF grants also has an impact on the commercial deal-making process for young companies, says Assoc Prof Mark Smythe, Protagonist's CEO.

The grants and investor funds are flowing to the Brisbane company because it has shown its ability to synthesise a class of molecule called cyclic tetrapeptides. They are labelled "a tantalising new source of bioactive molecules," by Smythe, who heads a team of 10 researchers associated with the company.

They are targeting protein-to-protein interactions that have proven difficult to modulate using conventional drug discovery approaches.

Unlike most discovery work which concentrates on drugs that fit into active sites on small targets, Protagonist's technology involves large macromolecular targets and drug candidates that can bind to flat surfaces rather than cavities.

It is focused on a family of naturally-occurring small molecules which are orally active, resist enzymatic degradation and are highly active as well as selective.

All these are characteristics of successful drug candidates and Protagonist has patented its technology for preparing the molecules.

The company will use some of its latest grant to underwrite further development of its drug discovery platform for identifying biologically-active molecules.