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Absynth Biologics raise £850,000 North West investment

Vaccine development company, Absynth Biologics, has secured an £850,000 investment from The North West Fund (TNWF) for Biomedical and university commercialisation firm, Fusion IP.

The University of Sheffield spinout, which also develops antibodies to treat bacterial infections, secured £400,000 from TNWF, while the remainder came from Fusion IP.

Fiona Marston, chief executive of Sheffield-based Absynth Biologics, said: “I am delighted to have the support of our new investor The North West Fund for Biomedical and the ongoing support of our existing shareholder Fusion IP.

“This investment will fund exciting stages of development for Absynth’s S. aureus vaccine and pipeline R&D programmes.”

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’s lead programme focuses on infections caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus including its more difficult-to-treat drug-resistant form, methicillin-resistant S.aureus (MRSA).

Absynth’s novel antigens offer broad potential against a range of bacterial infections and form the basis of the company’s pipeline that includes vaccines to prevent Clostridium difficile (C.diff) and Streptococcus pyogenes infections.

The firm will use the investment to advance the Staphylococcus aureus programme, and will add to funding won from the Biomedical Catalyst, which is administered by the Technology Strategy Board.

This brings the total awarded to Absynth since 2012 to £175,000 in two grants from the TSB.

Peter Grant, operations director for Fusion IP and Absynth’s chairman said: “We very much look forward to developing Absynth with our new investor, the North West Fund for Biomedical, to create a very exciting range of products in infectious diseases.

“The Absynth team are highly motivated and complemented by industry specific non-executive directors, all of whom work together against the very concerning threat of drug resistant bacteria.”

Dr Penny Attridge, senior investment director at SPARK Impact and manager of The North West Fund for Biomedical, added: “We hope that this funding will help Absynth Biologics to continue to excel and further develop its products to make a real difference in targeting infectious diseases.

“We’re delighted to make this investment into such a forward thinking company which is clearly passionate about combating infectious diseases.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .