Amryt Pharma scores €8.4m grant from Irish government

Amryt Pharma announced on Monday that it has secured am €8.4m grant from the Irish Government for three years of development of its AP103 gene therapy platform.

The orphan drug company said it will use the proceeds of the grant, which was provided by the disruptive technologies innovation fund from the Irish department of business, to research & development and staff costs associated with the project and, if pre-clinical work is successful, to fund initial phases of a clinical trial for AP103.

Amryt said the platform has the potential to be a disease-modifying therapy for patients suffering from recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a subset of epidermolysis bullosa.

As well as work on AP103, the funds will also support research into the platform's underlying High branched poly polymer technology for the treatment of other genetic disorders.

Joe Wiley, chief executive of Amryt Pharma, said: "We are very pleased to have received the DTIF grant award and are grateful for the support of the Irish Government. Our innovative AP103 gene therapy platform can potentially provide new treatments for disease areas with a significant unmet medical need."

Throughout the project, the AIM-traded company said it will work alongside University College Dublin, biotechnology manufacturer Curran Scientific and non-profit organization DEBRA Ireland.

"This funding will help to accelerate the development of our platform from research through to patient treatment in clinical trials. We are also excited and proud to be working with our consortium partners in Ireland: UCD, Curran Scientific and DEBRA Ireland to progress AP103," said Wiley.

Amryt’s shares were up 4.59% at 14.12p at 1640 GMT.