Date: 2012-10-09
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Abgentis (UK)
Investors: Midven Limited (UK) - undisclosed business angel
Amount: £75,000 (€93 090)
Funding type: fundraising
Planned used: The funding will be used to establish proof of concept of novobiocin re-engineering. The money will be used to generate a package of pre-clinical proof-of-concept information to support the licensing of the programme to established pharmaceutical companies.
Others: Abgentis, based at the Birmingham Research Park, will receive £75,000 in up to three milestone-driven tranches to establish proof of concept. The company is working to modify the antibiotic compound novobiocin, originally used to treat infections in the 1960s but which was replaced by drugs that were more competitive at the time. “Now, however, the clinical landscape has changed,” said Lloyd Czaplewski, who founded Abgentis. “There is resistance to these replacements and more recent clinical evaluation of novobiocin in oncology confirms that it is well tolerated in man.” He said that new scientific insights into how novobiocin works provided an opportunity to re-engineer the drug to create a new and valuable antibiotic therapy.
The £75,000 comes through Midven’s Early Advantage Fund, which provides investment for small, high growth businesses at start-up and early stage in the West Midlands, and has already helped secure additional private investment for the company, which plans to raise further funding this autumn. A business angel has also invested in this round.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
