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PsiOxus Therapeutics named EuropaBio’s Most Innovative European Biotech SME

As part of a prestigious European Biotech Week event in Brussels today, PsiOxus Therapeutics has been revealed as the recipient of the EuropaBio Most Innovative European Biotech SME Award 2013.

The award is now in its fourth year and has received applications from SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) representing healthcare, industrial and agricultural biotechnologies across Europe. Five companies were shortlisted, of which two were UK organisations, reflecting the UK’s strength in biotech innovation.

PsiOxus Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company based near Oxford, developing novel therapeutics in the fields of cancer and immunotherapeutics. PsiOxus Therapeutics’ novel approach to cancer therapy employs directed evolution to develop a virus that is a potent and specific killer of cancer cells with minimal harm to normal healthy cells.

Innovation in biotechnology is a crucial driver for generating novel solutions to unmet societal needs, and the award seeks to give recognition for companies that are developing innovative products and approaches to achieve that aim.

In response to receiving the award, which includes a prize of €10,000 and two years’ membership of EuropaBio, Dr John Beadle, Chief Executive Officer of PsiOxus Therapeutics, said:

“It is a great honour for PsiOxus to receive this award in recognition not only of the progress and the innovation generated by our own company but also in the UK bioscience industry in general. Our products and programs seek to treat cancer in highly innovative ways and this is only truly possible in an environment that is highly supportive of investment in innovative bioscience enterprises.”

Steve Bates, Chief Executive Office of the BioIndustry Association (BIA), added:

“It’s great to see an innovative British company win this prestigious European award. It confirms the UK’s position as the leading biotech cluster in the region.”

Commenting on this year’s award, Nathalie Moll, Secretary General of EuropaBio said:

“Here in Europe we are well aware of the lifeblood that innovative SMEs provide to the economy and we hope that the EuropaBio SME Award can contribute to raising the profile of these SMEs and the essential research and innovation that they are conducting.”

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For further information, please contact Zoë Freeman, Public Affairs and Communications Executive, zfreeman@bioindustry.org, 020 7630 2187; mobile 07741 249 902.

Notes to editors

EuropaBio Most Innovative EU Biotech SME Award

The EuropaBio Most Innovative EU Biotech SME Award aims to showcase European biotech SMEs that have developed an innovative solution to technical, social and environmental problems. http://bia.me/EBSME2013

Key speakers at the Award ceremony included Jean-Paul Kress, CEO of Sanofi Pasteur MSD; US venture capitalist, G. Steven Burrill, founder and CEO of Burrill & Company; Jim Philp, Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry at the OECD and MEPs Kay Swinburne and Philippe de Backer.

EuropaBio is the European Association for Bioindustries and was created in 1996 to provide a voice for the biotech industry in Europe. EuropaBio’s mission is to promote an innovative and dynamic biotechnology-based industry in Europe.www.europabio.org

European Biotech Week

In European Biotech Week, events across Europe are celebrating biotechnology, an innovative and vibrant sector launched by the 1953 discovery of the DNA molecule, sixty years ago. For more information and for materials to download, please go to www.biotechweek.org

PsiOxus Therapeutics

PsiOxus Therapeutics is developing a new approach to cancer therapy by using the processes of directed evolution to develop a virus that is a potent killer of cancer cells but with minimal effects on normal healthy cells. www.psioxus.com

BioIndustry Association

Founded over 20 years ago at the infancy of biotechnology, the BioIndustry Association (BIA) is the trade association for innovative enterprises involved in UK bioscience. Members include emerging and more established bioscience companies; pharmaceutical companies; academic, research and philanthropic organisations; and service providers to the bioscience sector. The BIA represents the interests of its members to a broad section of stakeholders, from government and regulators to patient groups and the media. Our goal is to secure the UK’s position as a global hub and as the best location for innovative research and commercialisation, enabling our world-leading research base to deliver healthcare solutions that can truly make a difference to people’s lives. For further information, please go to www.biodindustry.org