Aberdeen-based biotech firm Elasmogen has secured a £2 million investment backing its development of drugs based on a protein found in sharks.
The support for the University of Aberdeen spinout has come from Deepbridge Capital, taking the venture capital firm’s investment in the business to £3.15 million.
Elasmogen develops soloMERs, which aim to target diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis in cases which prove resistant to existing drugs. They say that VNARs, an antibody-like protein which is key to a shark’s immune system, produces drugs which are 10 times more effective than the conventional versions.
Elasmogen CEO Caroline Barelle said: “We are delighted that Deepbridge has continued to support our future development. Our pre-clinical data sets are becoming more and more compelling. This data is turning our original hypotheses about the unique selling points of our soloMERs into scientific reality. In fact, we now have results that show our drugs, at least in the laboratory, are 10x more potent than existing therapies.
“In addition, carefully selected partnerships are accelerating the disease modifying potential of our soloMERs, delivering the potential to destroy hard to treat cancers by stealth and from deep inside the solid-tumour.”
Deepbridge Capital’s follow-on investment will be used to accelerate the development of Elasmogen’s pipeline of drugs. It already has commercial partnerships, where soloMERs are used to target potent so-called drug warheads for the treatment of aggressive and life-shortening diseases.
Elasmogen has used genetic engineering techniques to create drug libraries of more than 100 billion unique soloMERs, from which new drug leads can be isolated. Their small size, highly stable nature and simple structure makes them ideal for delivering more effective treatments for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.
Dr Savvas Neophytou, partner and head of life sciences at Deepbridge Capital, said; “Having supported Elasmogen from seed-stage, we are delighted to continue working in partnership with the exceptional team at Elasmogen. Elasmogen typifies the type of growth-focused early-stage innovation that the Enterprise Investment Scheme was designed to support.”
