Investors back QBiotics wound treatment

Australia’s QBiotics is set to progress trials for a wound-healing gel after investors backed its latest funding round.

Victoria Gordon and Paul Reddell in the Atherton Tablelands. Picture: Lyndon Michielson.

Australian biotech QBiotics is on track to progress trials for a new wound-healing gel — developed from a plant from a north Queensland rainforest — to treat diabetic ulcers after investors backed its latest funding round.

QBiotics, which is chaired by Cochlear and ASX chairman Rick Holliday-Smith, was seeking $10 million from private investors but has already raised $13m, with the funding round open until the end of the week.

Chief executive Victoria Gordon said the new product re-initiated the wound-healing response of the body.

“As far as chronic wounds go, there is nothing out there … the main treatment for chronic wounds is manuka honey, which has antimicrobial activity and keeps a wound moist, but it doesn’t do the job.”

The wound healing gel, WH-1, is initially being developed for diabetic ulcers and venous leg ulcers, which Dr Gordon said was an unmet clinical need.

The natural compound in the gel comes from a plant found in a north Queensland rainforest, and was also the basis for the company’s lead drug candidate, which it is intended to treat cancerous tumours in both animals and humans.

Dr Gordon said the funds raised would be used to progress toxicology studies and a human phase one trial of the wound-healing treatment, which she said would be in the form of a simple gel application.

“We are getting stimulation of an antimicrobial effect (from the gel), destruction of bacterial biofilm and rapid closure of the wound with reduced scaring,” she said.

The company’s strategy has been to first promote drug candidates in the veterinary space, while also preparing them for human trials.

Dr Gordon, who co-founded the company with Paul Reddell, said it made sense to pursue veterinary approval first as it created a faster revenue stream for QBiotics and was a good way to assess the potential of a drug.

“It’s a great way to see if you’ve got something instead of spending millions on it before you have to walk away,” she said.

QBiotics’s veterinary product to treat solid cancer tumours is in late-stage development with the US Food and Drug Administration Centre for Veterinary Medicine, with sign-off on a planned pivotal efficacy study protocol expected soon.

“For a small Australian company we will be able to develop this (veterinary cancer) drug through to registration,” Dr Gordon said. “There’s a lot of interest in the drug. We are preparing for launch but we are interested in partnering for marketing.”

Dr Gordon added that while the company would eventually seek an Australian market listing, it wanted to first get its cancer drug registered for veterinary use to have a revenue stream before it hit the local bourse.

“Paul and I wanted to build a strong base, rather than build a company for a trade sale. We are building this for the future,” Dr Gordon said.

The biotech veteran started QBiotics’ parent company, EcoBiotics, 16 years ago. She said that because she was working with natural products, she couldn’t attract standard biotech funding.

“I moved sideways and went to high-net-worth mums and dads,” Dr Gordon said, adding that between them, the two companies had raised about $60m.

“There’s no venture capital or institutions at this point.”

Dr Gordon also flagged the company was considering merging EcoBiotics and QBiotics.

“We have a great discovery engine at EcoBiotics and we built a fantastic development team in QBiotics,” she said.

“If we put that together, QBiotics becomes not just the anti-cancer developer, but along with EcoBiotics it becomes a much stronger pipeline.”