Zentek Ltd. announced the launch of a wholly-owned subsidiary that will own the exclusive, global licensing rights for all aptamer-based technology from the collaboration with McMaster University. This licensing agreement includes the rapid-detection platform and the recent aptamer-based platform technology developed by Dr. Yingfu Li and his team that is showing promise as a therapeutic through preclinical studies being conducted by Dr. Matthew Miller and his team. This new entity has been launched as a vehicle to accelerate the growth of the aptamer technology, to communicate the technology to potential biotech investors and to build collaboration and licensing agreements with the pharmaceutical industry.

The patent-pending technology developed by Dr. Li increases the binding affinity of aptamers by 30 to 300 times and was used to create the universal SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic currently showing promise in pre-clinical trials. The newly established subsidiary will continue to develop high-value, aptamer-based therapeutics using this technology, while also exploring opportunities for collaborations and agreements with other drug development companies. The Company also believes there is potential to leverage the increased binding affinity within existing aptamer-based therapeutic drug programs to improve their performance and potentially achieve commercially relevant therapeutic thresholds.

In addition to increased binding affinity, the aptamer-based platform technology may also increase the bioavailability of aptamers for systemic therapeutic. Currently, aptamers are often attached to Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) to prevent their rapid renal clearance. Early indications suggest that the platform technology will not require PEG to prevent renal clearance, which could have significant value for systemic pharmaceutical use as a percentage of the general population has allergic responses or sensitivities to PEG.

The initial provisional patent for this platform technology was filed in September 2022 followed by a full patent filed recently under the patent cooperation treaty. The patent is expected to be published within the next 6 months. Zentek is moving quickly to assess the potential of this platform technology and is currently developing a plan to increase the resources and research speed for its McMaster University collaborators.

Zentek announced that both Dr. Matthew Miller and Dr. Yingfu Li have agreed to join the advisory board of Zentek's new wholly-owned subsidiary where they will play a key role as the company builds on this novel platform technology.