Teetering on the edge, Midatech plots pivot beyond drug delivery platform with Bioasis buyout

Midatech Pharma has identified a path past its cash crunch. With its runway set to end in March, the drug delivery specialist has secured financing and struck a deal to buy Bioasis Technologies to transition into a rare disease biotech.

Pharma companies including Johnson & Johnson have inked deals to access Midatech’s drug delivery technologies, which are designed to address challenges such as how to extend the dosing of injectable medicines. But the company has struggled to build a sustainable business around the technology, leading to a warning that cash could run out in March and force the winding down of operations. 

Midatech has hit upon a plan to avoid that outcome. By raising cash and buying Bioasis, Midatech plans to “transition from a drug delivery platform-based company to a therapeutics company” and establish a pipeline of rare disease candidates. Stephen Stamp, CEO of Midatech, explained the thinking behind the deal in a statement.

"By combining the two groups to create Biodexa Pharmaceuticals, we have the opportunity to reposition the enlarged group as an emerging biotech company focused on the development of therapeutics for rare diseases, supported by Midatech and Bioasis' enabling drug delivery platforms,” Stamp said. “We continue to believe there is substantial value to be unlocked from Midatech's MTX110, particularly in our ongoing phase I clinical trial in GBM, and to leverage our Q-Sphera technology.”

Bioasis is built on technology for transporting medicines across the blood-brain barrier. The approach is derived from a human transport protein found circulating at low levels in the blood, and Bioasis has used it to create a pipeline that includes potential treatments for brain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.