Date: 2013-07-18
Type of information: Financing round
Company: Absynth Biologics (UK)
Investors: The North West Fund for Biomedical (EU) Fusion IP (UK)
Amount: $1.2 million (€0.91 million)
Funding type: financing round
Planned used: Absynth will use the investment to advance the Staphylococcus aureus programme to key pre-clinical milestones. The investment will also complement funding secured from the Biomedical Catalyst - a funding stream administered by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), to further develop Absynth’s product pipeline. This brings the total awarded to Absynth since 2012 to £175,000 in two grants from the TSB.
Others: Absynth Biologics Limited, a UK biotechnology spinout company from the University of Sheffield, has secured £400,000 from The North West Fund for Biomedical, managed by SPARK Impact and £450,000 from Fusion IP plc, the university commercialisation company. The North West Fund for Biomedical is part of the wider £155m North West Fund, financed jointly by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank. Absynth Biologics is the North West Fund for Biomedical’s 61st investment to date and the 41st company to be supported by the Fund. The £25m North West Fund for Biomedical, managed by SPARK Impact, is a sub-fund of The North West Fund, which is provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), to supply equity funding to small and medium sized enterprises in the North West of England. It was launched in February 2011 and is accessible to a broad range of companies including those developing pharmaceuticals, new diagnostics and medical devices, and those working in the fields of clinical research, contract manufacturing and analytical services. It is open to companies based in, or prepared to relocate to, the North West of England, with 40% of the fund to be invested on Merseyside. It is expected that the fund will invest in over 50 businesses.
Absynth Biologics has identified novel protein antigens, conserved and essential for the life of bacteria that harness the immune system by a dual-action mechanism to eliminate bacteria: direct antibody-mediated antibacterial activity and engagement of classic immune effector functions. In its lead programme, the company has shown that its selected protein antigen formulations can protect against infections caused by S. aureus in a well-recognised model of disease. Despite several attempts no S. aureus vaccine is yet available and all vaccine clinical trials have failed despite promising pre-clinical animal model data. Absynth is addressing this problem with its novel vaccine targets and technologies to more effectively stimulate the human immune system; this coupled with a greater understanding of the development of infection is being used innovatively to select the best candidate vaccine for clinical development.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
